


Dance While You Can

by kawree



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Multi, So yeah, There's a bit of swearing, also there's no PG rating, also this is now slightly AU, but i mean, but i'm still listing this as gen because the ship isn't the point, eventually, i was swearing long before then, idk i'm just trying to be considerate, idk if anyone cares, it's just going to be there, it's never really going to be the focus, only General and then Teen?, some shipping gon' happen, thanks to 2.8, there's nothing nsfw or especially violent tho, while the plot is happening
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-28
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2017-11-10 22:31:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 38
Words: 161,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/471414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kawree/pseuds/kawree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Axel may have been one of the Organization's finest, but Lea finds he's not taking to Keyblade training quite so easily, and after more than ten years of mostly working for Organization Himself, he's having a little difficulty remembering how to play well with others.  Good thing Kairi and Riku aren't the sort to give up easily.  Updated monthly-ish.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Flux Time and Wary Glances

**Author's Note:**

> So I started this like two years ago and had no idea what I wanted to do with it. And then I figured it out. SURPRISE. Might eventually involve ship. We'll see. Let me know what you think!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lea realizes he may have bitten off more than he can chew.

He had never really understood how people messed with the flow of time. Luxord could do it, and apparently Xehanort could, too, but Lea had always suspected that anyone who would screw with time had to be evil. Think of the potential to unravel the fabric of the cosmos, after all!

It certainly came as a surprise, then, to learn that _Merlin_ of all people had the capability as well. Not only was he seemingly going senile (Lea'd had to bite the corners of his mouth to keep from laughing when the old man lost his glasses in his beard), but he was mentor to King Arthur and arguably one of the most powerful mages of all time. Lea wouldn't have believed it if it hadn't been Yen Sid telling him. Merlin seemed a bit too ridiculous, in his opinion, but Lea of all people could appreciate someone whose appearance belied the power beneath it.

He was getting a bit tired of the training already, though.

"Can't we just fast-forward to the part where I don't suck at this?" he complained, thrusting his hand out for the seventeenth time and _willing_ that stupid spiky Keyblade to come to his fingers. It had come of its own accord that day in the tower, just in time to let him bask in the disbelief of his new comrades, but it had defied him ever since.

Typical. He supposed a Keyblade should suit its master, after all, and Lea was little if not a troublemaker always looking for the opportune moment to give someone a hard time. Hell, he was surprised he'd been told he had the potential at all! Sure, he had a shiny new heart and all (or a shiny old one, but who was counting, right?), but he'd been all but consumed by his own darkness for a time there. Castle Oblivion had really marked some of his darkest days, and he acknowledged that--he'd never told Roxas the truth about what had happened in that whitewashed castle, never admitted to his friend that he was a _murderer..._ How could a Keyblade come to the hand of a killer?

"You're doing it again," came Merlin's chastising voice, and Lea snapped his head up.

"Huh?"

The old wizard wagged a finger at him from where he stood on the opposite side of the room in the space that defied time. He approached him, finger still wagging, and Lea inanely found himself wondering how Merlin didn't _trip_ over that beard of his.

"You're thinking too hard about it," he said, and Lea made a face.

"So what am I supposed to do?" he asked, shaking his head. "It isn't like it just shows up all willy-nilly. That'd be no good anyway--imagine if it did that at the dinner table."

Merlin just gave him a wry look. "There is a certain sort of stragety--ah, er, strategy--to summoning a weapon, Lea," he said, twirling his beard around one hand, a fidget Lea had noticed him indulging often recently. "You have no trouble summoning your other weapons, correct?"

Lea snapped both arms out and called up his chakrams easily, the spiked wheels whorling into the space against his palms. He closed his fingers around the crossguards and hooked one over his shoulder, slumping a bit. He made no comment, figuring the demonstration was response enough.

Merlin 'hmm'ed to himself and turned to walk past him.

"It seems to me, then," he said, "that your issue is not with the summoning of _a_ weapon, but with the summoning of _this particular_ weapon."

Lea rolled his eyes while the old wizard's back was turned. "Thank you, Captain Obvious," he grumbled, dismissing his chakrams in a puff of smoke and heat.

"Perhaps all you need is the right stimulus," he said, and Lea turned to look at him.

"Stimulus?" This wasn't going to involve shock-therapy, was it? He'd gotten more than enough of that from Larxene.

"You've been trying so hard," Merlin said, reaching for a door that Lea swore hadn't been there a moment ago, "but you've been working on your own."

"Well, it ain't like I've got a partner anymore," he blurted before he thought better of it. The words were bitter, distasteful, tumbling clumsily from his mouth like he couldn't stand them on his tongue.

Everything had happened so quickly that he hadn't really had a chance to stop and think on it all. Maybe it was better that way. Those few times he'd paused to wonder what had happened to Roxas that new old heart of his had just seized up almost painfully. It was eerie, he mused, the way he'd "felt" that same crushing sensation that night Roxas had left the Organization. Maybe it was true they'd had hearts all along, maybe it was true he'd somehow grown himself another... maybe he would never know for certain. All he knew now was he couldn't make excuses anymore. He _had_ a heart and now he had to deal with the feelings that came with it, uncomfortable though they might have been.

Roxas was _gone._ His best friend was gone, and there was nothing he could do about it. And it _vexed_ him. 

Lea didn't resent Sora for what had happened, really--he didn't have to know Sora well to know that the kid wouldn't have _chosen_ to cause someone not to exist for his sake. He wasn't sorry he'd saved the kid's ass, and he certainly wasn't sorry he'd promised to help Riku look after him, either. He had a feeling it was going to take all of them working together to make sure Xehanort didn't get what he wanted.

Lea would have been lying though, to say that he wouldn't have given up that heart in... well, a heartbeat, if it would have brought Roxas back. There had been a time when it was all he'd wanted, when the thought of having a heart again was the only thing that made the missions worth it. Roxas had trumped all of that, and he still couldn't believe the kid was _gone,_ even if there were times he could swear he saw Roxas' expressions behind Sora's eyes.

It was eerie, like seeing a ghost, and then Lea shivered at the very idea of referring to Roxas that way.

He snapped out of his morose musings when he realized Merlin was still talking.

"Huh, what?" He shook his head and turned to face him where he stood with his hand on the doorknob. "Sorry, I faded out for a minute there."

Merlin sighed long-sufferingly and turned the doorknob.

"I think it would behoove you to have someone to train _with_ ," he said, "so I've arranged to combine your training sessions with my other pupil."

"Other pupil?" Jeez, how many Keyblade wielders _were_ there?

"I believe you two have met, actually," Merlin said, and Lea glanced up in time to see a familiar figure step through the door.

"Ah--!" He made a wordless noise of alarm and took a step back, then jabbed a finger at the figure in the doorway. "W-wait are you kidding? I can't train with--"

"Ah!" It seemed Merlin hadn't informed Kairi of her new sparring partner's identity beforehand either. She jabbed a finger back at him and glowered. "I can't train with him!"

... Well that was just _rude._

"Merlin, I really don't think this'll work," Lea said, shaking his head, and Kairi folded her arms over her chest.

"I thought I'd heard you were here and had a Keyblade," she said, shaking her head incredulously, "but I thought Riku was pulling my leg."

He scoffed and folded his arms indignantly. "Well, surprise surprise, Princess!"

"I can't train with a kidnapper," she grumbled toward Merlin, gesturing at Lea, and Lea bristled visibly.

"Hey, I _tried_ to get you to come willingly," he said, and she crinkled her nose at him.

"Yeah, and then you _kidnapped_ me."

"Yeah, and then you _bit_ me!"

"All right, all right, settle down, children," Merlin said, holding his hands up and then closing the door. "You've both been chosen to wield Keyblades, so there's no reason for you to bicker between yourselves. You're supposed to be on the same team."

Kairi didn't look entirely convinced, and Lea gave a gusty sigh. All right, all right, he was an adult, right? He could do this.

"Okay, fine, the old man's got a point," he said quietly, averting his eyes and then looking back at Kairi, who was still regarding him with suspicion. He had to figure she didn't know what had happened to him, that the only reason he was here at all was because he'd given up everything to aid Sora. He had a feeling she wouldn't be wearing that wary scrutinizing face if she knew. Well, he wasn't going to just play his trump card yet. But he _did_ owe her one thing, and he couldn't hide behind the idea that his heart wouldn't be in it anymore. "Look, I'm sorry, okay?" He sort of flapped his arms helplessly at his sides. "I know it prolly doesn't mean anything to you, but I was doing what I thought needed to be done."

Kairi's expression softened a little, though the suspicion remained. They had had a bit of a conversation in the corridors between worlds that day he'd taken her from Twilight Town. He had thought they'd reached some kind of understanding... but he supposed being taken by Saïx had sort of put a strain on that. He didn't know how badly he might have treated her, didn't know what she might have gone through in the castle. Sure, he had tried to keep Saïx from taking her, and yes, he had gone to the castle to try and get her out, but he was an accomplished actor and he knew she knew it. It really didn't come as any surprise she was wary.

But he needed to learn to wield a Keyblade, and if having a sparring partner was the only way to do it, well, then... so be it. There wasn't a lot Lea swallowed his pride for, but maybe this was one of those things.

He took a few steps forward to close the distance between them and stuck one hand out.

"I promise not to kidnap you anymore," he said, venturing a hesitant grin, and Kairi regarded the offered hand a moment.

Then she lifted her bright blue eyes to him and squinted, as if searching his gaze for something sinister. Apparently she found nothing, because she deigned to close her small hand around his and shake it firmly--she had a sturdier handshake than he'd expected--before releasing it and pointing her finger at him again.

"I still don't trust you," she said, though there was no real malice in her voice, "but... if you're here, then Master Yen Sid does. And... apparently Riku and Sora do." She lowered her eyes, her fingers closing around the little sphere pendant on the necklace she wore, and she was quiet a moment before lifting her head again. "So I'll trust _them,_ so I guess we can work together," she said, "but _you're_ going to have to _earn_ my trust; I'm not just gonna give it to you."

Lea chuckled. "Fair enough," he said. "Show me what you've got."

She brushed past him, her stride confident and her shoulders thrown back--she really _was_ a princess, even if so far as he knew her blood was no bluer than his. And as he watched her turn on her heel and face him, a flowery Keyblade shimmering into her grip, he suddenly felt a little inadequate. He was a good ten years her senior and yet she'd obviously picked this up without any trouble. Lea struggled a moment with the humbling idea that it really _shouldn't_ have been so easy to win the trust or respect of a princess. No easier than, say, wielding a Keyblade.

Granted, if someone had told Lea once upon a time that he would ever have the opportunity to do either, he wasn't sure he would have believed them.


	2. Bloody Knuckles and Changes of Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is much bickering.

His knuckles were bleeding. That was new.

"Ow-- _ow_! Okay, hold the walkie for a second!" He dismissed his Keyblade and held both hands up, frantically making a time out signal, and Kairi huffed, propping her free hand on her hip. Lea glowered fiercely at her and rubbed at his bruised, bloodied hand before casting a low-level Cure spell to dull the pain. " _Sheesh_ , you don't pull your punches, do ya, Princess?" he asked. "Stop _hitting_ so hard."

"Then try hitting me _back_ ," Kairi countered, and Lea stared at her expression a moment. There was something familiar about the angry look on her face, something that made everything behind his ribs seize up and ache for some reason, and he shook his head quickly.

"I can't just _hit_ you," he said, folding his arms and popping one hip, "you're a _girl_."

"Ex _cuse_ you," she snapped, stomping her foot, "but you didn't seem to have any trouble _kidnapping_ me."

"But I didn't _hurt_ you!"

"All right, you two, that's enough."

Both redheads turned when Riku's voice cut through the bickering, and Kairi dismissed Destiny's Embrace, rolling her eyes and folding her arms. Lea couldn't tell if she was mocking his posture or if she just also stood that way when she was pissed off, but it didn't really matter. His lip curled in something like contempt as Riku deliberately stepped between them, like a hall monitor breaking up a fight between the lockers, and he rolled his eyes at the look he was being given. Why did Riku always make _him_ out to be the bad guy?

"What's the problem here?" he asked in his best no-nonsense I'm In Charge Here voice, and Lea rolled his eyes harder.

"She wants me to _hit_ her," Lea blurted, and Kairi made an indignant noise.

"I want you to take me _seriously_ ," she corrected, and Riku just made a loud wordless noise and lifted both arms, positioning his hands in front of both of their faces as though blocking them from one another's line of sight would help.

"E _nough_ ," Riku repeated, looking from Kairi to Lea and then back to Kairi. "What happened?" he asked, and Lea just rolled his eyes again. (He was going to get dizzy at this rate.) Of course he would ask _Kairi_ what happened.

She shook her head. "He's holding back," she complained, putting both hands on her hips. "He dodges my attacks and redirects my advances, but he won't strike back."

Lea growled and sliced a hand through the air. "You really _want_ me to hit you?" he asked. "Seriously, what kind of man just _hits_ a girl?"

"The enemy," Riku provided, nipping any response Kairi might have had in the bud before reaching out and grabbing Lea's wrist. Lea made a startled noise and fought the urge to recoil reflexively as Riku examined the bruising on his knuckles. "What'd you do to yourself?"

" _She_ did it," he insisted sullenly, yanking his hand away and cradling it against his chest, and Riku sighed long-sufferingly, kneading his forehead with one hand.

"Merlin said you two were having trouble," he muttered, obviously more to himself than to them, "but this is ridiculous."

" _You're_ ridiculous," Lea echoed quietly, mockingly, before he thought better of it, then stiffened where he stood, a comically severe expression on his face, as if daring Riku to deny it. Riku mostly ignored him, which just made Lea angrier.

"Kairi, take a quick break, okay?" Riku absently rubbed at his left wrist and then gestured behind him toward the doors of Yen Sid's tower. After Lea had complained for the seventeenth time about the claustrophobic nature of the room out of time that Merlin had been training them in, they'd been sent to the yard. The truth was Lea wasn't claustrophobic at all, he just hated the old wizard's eyes on them the whole time. "Master Yen Sid wanted to talk to you about your magic performance anyway."

She grimaced, looking uncertain about this, and Lea took a brief moment to look smug. Kairi was actually a barely passable mage, and he found this _hilarious_. Wasn't it some unspoken rule of battle that girls were always the mages? Every video game he had ever whupped Isa at when they were kids, the girl in the party was the healer, and somehow Kairi being even worse at Cure than _he_ was struck his funnybone right on the head. She could swing that Keyblade as hard as any of them, and he was pretty confident she could kick like a mule (she could _bite_ like one, in any case), but even if she had pulled ahead on the Keyblading half of their training regimen, at least he still had her bested in magic.

Not that Riku seemed too impressed by that.

Lea took a half step back as Riku moved to stand directly in front of him. It was remarkable to him that this kid who was a good half a head shorter than he was could still manage to be so damn intimidating. It was his eyes, Lea decided: they were so bright he swore they had to glow in the dark, and they made him look really intense.

"… What?" he asked, folding his arms defensively again, and Riku stepped back and summoned his Keyblade. Lea threw both hands up in front of him. "Whoa, whoa, hey, take it easy!" he gasped, backpedaling. "Come on, man, I'm on your side, remember?"

"Right," Riku said with a nod, "and your sparring partner is me now."

"Hah?" This wasn't part of the plan. Lea _knew_ Riku could kick his ass, and getting his ass kicked was not on today's agenda.

"You wouldn't attack Kairi because she's a girl," Riku said, shifting into his usual stance, with his Keyblade drawn up and his left arm extended, "so I'll be your partner."

Lea made a face like he'd eaten something hideously sour.

" _Hell_ no," he said, crossing both arms in an X in front of him. "Not interested, nope, no way sorbet, I am _so_ not putting myself on the receiving end of your Keyblade of my own volition. No, _thank_ you."

Riku grinned and Lea felt his heart sink.

"You say that like you've got a choice!"

With a squawk of alarm, Lea leapt backward as Riku swiped his blade through the air, very nearly missing slashing the front of his coat open.

"Hey, _watch_ it, I can't replace this anymore!" he complained, ducking low and then snapping one leg out to maybe sweep Riku's feet from beneath him.

"Oh come on, is that really the best you can do?" Riku taunted, easily jumping over the sweep and twisting in the air. Lea threw himself to the ground and rolled, but Riku was too fast, and the redhead found himself staring down the feathered wing of Way to the Dawn where it was positioned alongside his neck.

Dismissing his Keyblade, Riku gave Lea a pointedly unimpressed look.

"Well _that_ was pathetic," he said, shaking his head. "You're thinking too much, and you're way too focused on everything around you instead of me--you need to learn to take in your surroundings without being distracted by them."

Lea glared at him. "I wasn't _ready_ ," he huffed, and Riku's expression darkened.

"You really think Xehanort's gonna wait for you to be _ready_?" he asked, offering a hand to help Lea back to his feet. "He knows he's got us outnumbered and outgunned; he's _counting_ on us not being ready. You really wanna give him that?"

"No." Lea's reply was churlish and petulant, and he brushed Riku's offered hand away with a grunt, getting to his feet and dusting off his rear.

"Then you need to start taking this seriously," Riku said, and Lea all but snarled at him.

"Don't tell me I'm not taking this seriously," he snapped, jabbing an accusatory finger at the younger man. "If you think I wasn't serious as drowning when I told Yen Sid I was on board with this then you've got another thing coming, Riku."

Riku folded his arms, his brow furrowed. "Then what's the problem?" His inquiry was vexingly plain, infuriatingly benign, and Lea averted his eyes.

"I _suck_ ," he said, sulking. "I can barely get the damn Keyblade to listen to me, let alone do anything useful."

"Ax-- er... Lea." 

Lea tried not to bristle. He failed.

Riku regrouped. "We all sucked at first," he said, and Lea scoffed bitterly.

"No you didn't," he said, shaking his head. "You and Sora, Kairi, the king, even _Xehanort,_ you were all _chosen_. The Keyblade came to _you._ "

Riku abruptly looked down and away, his hands curling into fists. "That isn't--"

"Isn't it?" _Wasn't_ that the whole point? "It deemed you worthy without being asked! Me, I had to _force_ it. Square peg in a round hole, you know?"

"Lea, what matters is it _did_ accept you," Riku said, holding his hands up then, obviously trying to diffuse the situation. "You know Sora wasn't its first choice, either."

Lea arched one thin eyebrow. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"What do you want me to tell you, then?" Riku asked, folding his arms again and regarding Lea sternly. "Nobody's born a master at anything. You had to learn how to use your chakrams, right?"

"Well, yeah--"

"So how's this any different?"

Lea hefted a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck. "'Cuz I got used to actually being _good_ at stuff," he admitted with candor, and Riku somehow looked both forgiving and surprised at the same time. "I was good at being a jerk."

"You still are," Riku snorted. "Now you just have to learn how to be a jerk who's good with a Keyblade."

Lea gave him the dirtiest look he was capable of. "And how do you propose I do _that_ , _Master_ Riku?"

Riku's eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the sarcastic use of his title, but didn't acknowledge the jab. Instead he just extended his hand.

"By training with a jerk who's already good with a Keyblade."

There was a beat of silence, and Lea looked suspicious. "I thought I was training with Kairi," he said, and Riku shrugged one shoulder.

"She'll need to work with us too," he said, "since Sora's not here and we don't have an even number to pair off. You're gonna need to get over your fear of hitting girls, Lea."

"I'm not _afraid_ of hitting girls," Lea snapped, and Riku snorted a laugh.

"Uh huh." He didn't sound convinced. "Whatever you wanna call it, it's a luxury you're not going to have, either way."

Lea examined Riku's hand a moment, like he expected there to be a buzzer in his palm or something, then sighed. Well, Riku did make a compelling argument: he _was_ a jerk. He shook Riku's hand firmly, then refused to let go for a moment, pulling him forward a step.

"Don't you _ever_ pull that surprise attack crap on me again, you hear me?" he snarled with mostly mock menace, squeezing Riku's hand as hard as he could, "or I'll light those oversized shoes of yours on fire."

He released Riku's hand (watching with a degree of satisfaction as Riku wrung said hand and rubbed at it with a frown on his face) and folded his arms. He _did_ want to learn, he really did. He wanted to fight alongside Sora and Riku and the rest of them, he _wanted_ to take Xehanort down. He wanted to find a way to get Roxas back.

He wanted to save _Isa_.

He just had no idea how the hell he was going to pull any of it off.

"So what now, _maestro_?" he asked, watching Riku's eyes narrow again. What? He hadn't even been sarcastic that time!

Riku hooked his thumbs into the belt loops of his jeans and frowned, then nodded.

"Now I think we go shopping."

Lea twisted a finger in his ear. "Come again?"

"You're one of the good guys now, Lea," he said, turning to head back into the tower, "so quit dressing like a villain."

Lea made an indignant noise and gestured at his coat. "Hey-- come on, this is _functional_!" he said, jogging up the stairs after Riku. "I sure hope _you're_ not my fashion consultant; vests are _so_ six months ago."

He had a feeling this was the beginning of a very long, very annoying chapter in his life.


	3. Laying Tracks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kairi and Lea have a soft reset.

Kairi almost hadn't recognized him, which was fairly impressive, given how distinctive Lea looked. Without his Black Coat and with his hair pulled back in a ponytail, he had looked like a completely different person for a moment, but when she took stock of what he was wearing instead, she knew exactly what had happened. Really, there was no other explanation for the tight shirt and baggy pants.

"Oh no, you let Riku take you shopping, didn't you?" she gasped, bringing her hands to her face and covering her mouth with her fingertips.

Lea blinked, glanced down at his clothes, then looked back at her. "Is there a problem?" he asked, and Kairi worried at her lower lip.

"Well, at least he didn't stuff you in a vest," she said, and Riku made an indignant sound in the back of his throat.

"There's nothing wrong with vests," he insisted, and Lea still just looked confused as to why they were even discussing any of this. Riku gestured at him with a look of incredulity. "Well the scarf was all his idea--I told him it looked dumb."

"Your _face_ looks dumb," came Lea's perfectly reasonable and mature retort.

Kairi sighed and shook her head, getting to her feet and dusting off her backside. She had been sitting on the stairs that led up to Yen Sid's tower. Her magic lesson with Merlin had ended a little early (she suspected it had something to do with the fact that she had accidentally set his beard on fire), and since the boys had been nowhere to be found, she'd been out anyone to spar with. After running through her sword forms a few times, she had dismissed Destiny's Embrace and just sat down on the stairs to wait.

She really hated waiting.

Cupping her cheek in one hand and her elbow in the other, Kairi looked from Lea to Riku and back, and then shook her head.

"No, it's just no good," she said, and Lea looked like he couldn't decide if he was confused or offended. She extended both arms forward at them, and they exchanged a dubious look before tentatively reaching out to take her hands. "Come on," she said, stepping between them to pull them back in the direction they had come. "I'm not training with you guys looking like that, it's embarrassing."

Riku stumbled backward with her tug and pinwheeled his free arm to keep his balance, twisting around and pulling his hand from hers before she got too far. "Wait, what? Kairi, that's ridiculous, there's nothing wrong with these clothes."

Lea seemed content to just walk backwards beside her, looking more intrigued now, and he waved jovially at Riku as they continued walking without him.

"Hey, if she wants to buy me stuff I'm not gonna say no," he called, and Kairi let go of Lea's hand to turn back to Riku.

"Riku, really," she said, "your pants are like four sizes too big and your shirt is like two inches too short. I'm amazed you don't trip yourself--how do you even fight like that?"

"She makes a valid point," Lea said, and Kairi gave him a dubious sidelong glance.

"Oh don't get me started on the impracticality of fighting someone in a full-length leather trenchcoat," she said.

"Well what about you fighting Heartless in a _dress_?" Riku challenged, and Kairi folded her arms with a huff.

"Gosh, and here I was pretty sure I wore _shorts_ most of the time when we played together as kids," she countered. "If I had known that coming to find you was gonna involve combat? I'd have changed before I left." She gestured at today's outfit: a cream-colored romper with flower accents and an asymmetrical neckline. "In case you hadn't noticed, I dress for the _occasion_."

"Another valid point," Lea piped up, and Riku glowered at him.

"Whose side are you on?" he demanded, and Lea shrugged.

"Whosever's is buying me stuff."

Kairi snorted a laugh. Well, at least he had priorities. She waved a hand to sort of beckon for Lea to follow her.

"Come on," she said. "Riku's gonna sulk until we're gone, and then he'll follow us."

Lea arched his eyebrows and turned around to walk forward again, matching her gait. "Will he?" he asked conspiratorially, and she nodded.

"Mmhm, just wait," she said. "We'll get to Twilight Town and he'll be on the next train. Guaranteed."

"Train?" Lea looked baffled, and Kairi blinked up at him.

"Oh, you've never been on it?" She was actually kind of excited. Yen Sid had told her about the magic train that linked his tower to Twilight Town, but she hadn't had the chance to ride it yet. She hadn't wanted to go to Twilight Town all alone, after all--what would she have done there with no one to talk to? She supposed she could have gone to see Hayner, Pence, and Olette, but they probably just would have had a bunch of questions about Sora like last time. At least if she had someone else with her she had an excuse to dodge them. "Master Yen Sid told me the train used to go other places too, but most of the paths had to be closed down when the Heartless got out of hand."

"You mean the _ghost train_?" Lea looked suddenly alarmed, almost comically so, and Kairi made a face at him.

"It isn't a ghost," she said, shaking her head. "It's a real train."

"One of those Seven Wonders of Twilight Town, right?" Lea shook his head quickly. "You mean to tell me that Pence kid was _right_?"

Kairi paused in her steps and just searched Lea's face a moment, wondering if Riku had hit him over the head today. "Lea it's not a ghost train," she said, tapping her chin with one finger, "though I guess since most people can't see it, I understand where that rumor comes from." She started forward again, clasping her hands behind her back and laughing a bit. "I didn't think you were such a scaredy-cat."

Lea huffed and jogged after her. "I'm not _scared_ ," he insisted, and she just laughed again, headed for the edge of the grass.

As they approached the ledge, a shimmering set of blue-green train tracks seemed to appear out of nowhere, like one of those hologram stickers Kairi used to put all over her notebooks when she was in primary school. She actually had no idea how this worked, and her eyes grew wide with wonder as the air above the tracks hitched and warped and began to glow brightly. Backing up a step, she bumped into Lea, who absently planted a hand on her shoulder as if to steady her, his gaze just as wide and befuddled as the white glow slowly became a single train car.

"That's different," he mused, and she just nodded. He glanced down at her, quickly pulling his hand away, and quirked his mouth slightly downward. "Do you think it's safe?" he asked, and she looked back at the train car.

It was blue and gold and covered in stars, crowned with a pointed hat much like Yen Sid's. With a sharp exhale, Kairi threw her shoulders back. It _had_ to be safe. Master Yen Sid wouldn't have made the suggestion otherwise, right?

She cast Lea an impish smile.

"I thought you weren't scared," she teased, and stepped through the open doorway into the train car.

* * *

They spent the first seven minutes of the ride in completely, utterly awkward silence, seated opposite one another, her arms stiff and fists on her thighs and his arms folded with one ankle propped on his opposite knee. It had been easy to tease him when she knew Riku was right there, but somehow once the tram door had closed a lance of apprehension had snaked into her gut.

She knew that Lea was not Axel. She _knew_ that! Just like Roxas was not Sora and Naminé was not her, this man in front of her was _not_ the same man who had kidnapped her... was he? For that matter, was it so bad if he _was_? She hadn't been able to figure Axel out. Traveling through the corridors with him, he had spoken to her like anybody would have; he had confessed that he only wanted to find his friend, and had even tried to protect her when that awful man with the blue hair had taken her away. He had suffered terrible injuries trying to _help_ her, so why was she so nervous about being here, in this train car with his Somebody?

Kairi stared at the backs of her hands, her brow drawn and her lips pressed together tightly. Maybe she was being unfair. He hadn't hurt her, even when he'd taken her by the arm and pulled her into that corridor. He had returned to the castle at great risk to himself to try and free her, and she had just thrown her tray of food at him, angry and resentful. The kneejerk ire had remained, even after all this time had passed; she hadn't really _meant_ to be so sharp when Merlin had suggested they spar together, it had just come out that way!

Everyone made mistakes, right? Didn't he deserve a second chance?

"Ah... so..." She lifted her head to look at him, then quickly looked away again. Oh, his eyes were closed--maybe he was sleeping.

Maybe this had been a bad idea.

"You're thinking awful hard over there," he said, and she jumped, startled, her gaze snapping back to his again, and she took a moment to note inanely that his eyes, now open and fixed on her, were almost the same shade of green as the whorling auroras outside the windows. He hadn't moved, his arms still folded and his leg still drawn up, one thin eyebrow arched. "Munny for your thoughts," he said, and she fidgeted.

What was she supposed to say? There was no way to talk about who Lea was versus who Axel had been without sounding like a jerk, and Kairi didn't want to be a jerk. She held his gaze a moment, then looked away again, shaking her head.

"Never mind," she said, and Lea made a sharp noise, like he'd suddenly remembered something.

"Ah! I get it," he said, and Kairi looked up again.

"Huh?"

"This is a counter-kidnap, isn't it?" There was a reckless look in his eye. "You're getting me back for that time before. Very clever, very clever indeed."

Now she was _really_ starting to wonder if Riku had hit him over the head.

"What?" She shook her head, as though she hadn't quite understood what he'd even said. "No, it's nothing like that! I would never kidnap someone!" She gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth. Oh, that had come out wrong. "I mean--! Not that people who kidnap people are bad!" Wait. That was wrong too. "W-well, I mean, they _are_ , but... I'm not saying _you're_ bad--"

"Easy, princess, don't have an aneurysm." Lea was laughing quietly into one hand, his thin shoulders shaking, and Kairi wasn't sure if she was angry or flustered or just plain mortified. "I'm just messing with you. You know, trying to lighten the mood?"

She puffed her cheeks out a little, definitely leaning toward angry now, but there was something kind of pleasant about Lea's laughter. It actually sounded genuine, and somehow that wasn't what she had expected from him. Axel had reminded her of a cactus: sharp and prickly, guarded, but mostly because he had no other means of really defending himself. His approach on the beach had been dramatic, with flourish, and as Kairi had deconstructed the events that had led up to her being there in that cell with Pluto in the basement of the Castle that Never Was, she had realized that that was _all_ it had been: drama. Flourish. Axel had been an actor, a marionette intent on tangling his own strings. He had been forceful, but not unkind, and only in retrospect had the pain in his eyes really registered to her. By then it had been too late.

Kairi had expected Lea to be the same way, but he wasn't. Lea looked the same (sans those odd tattoos) and sounded the same (perhaps with his sarcasm dialed back a few degrees), but he _wasn't_ the same, and she hadn't been able to figure out why until right then: he wasn't _acting_ anymore.

"Do you remember it all?" she asked impulsively, and then bit her lip as if considering taking it back. No... no, she wanted to know. "I mean... when you were... before. Do you remember it?"

"I remember everything," he said plainly, shrugging one shoulder, and then tapped his temple. "I'd be a hypocrite otherwise; got it memorized?"

She gave him a slightly dubious smile, then lowered her eyes.

"I just wondered," she said, fidgeting again. "I... don't. I mean, I remember what happened to _me_ , but not to Naminé. There's bits and pieces, like scenes from a montage, but I don't really _remember_ it."

Lea shook his head. "Why would you?" he asked, sounding sincerely curious, and she met his eye again.

"You just said that _you_ do." She worried at her lower lip again, lacing and unlacing her fingers. "Axel was your Nobody, right? And now you're Lea. Naminé was _my_ Nobody, but now that we're together, I don't know everything that happened to her."

He rolled his shoulders and then rubbed the back of his neck, like the positing of this situation had caught him somehow unprepared. Kairi still didn't really understand a lot of what had happened, but she didn't even know where to begin asking for answers. She wasn't even sure she _wanted_ those answers, because something told her she wouldn't like them even if she got them.

"Why do you remember, but I don't?" she asked, shaking her head. Lea's brow furrowed, a very sharp crinkle forming between them, and in that moment there was something almost familiar, nostalgic, about the expression.

"Roxas and Naminé, they were special," he said after a long pause, folding his arms again and not looking at her. "They... had their own hearts, from the beginning, I'm pretty sure of that." He met her eyes briefly, then looked beyond her, to the glowing lights outside the window. "You and Naminé might be two pieces of something bigger," he said, "but you're still whole pieces. Your hearts are your own, and so are your memories."

"I remember you, though."

Lea met her eye again, looking half confused and half apprehensive, and Kairi placed a hand over her heart.

"I can't quite see it," she said, shaking her head, "but I can _feel_ it. You helped Naminé, and she was grateful, and... I remember that." She lowered her head, trying to concentrate. "You were kind to her when no one else was, and she never forgot that. She... wanted to repay you."

He shifted uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his neck again, and then waved one hand dismissively.

"Well, you might also wanna remember that she saved my life and doesn't owe me a darn thing," he said stiffly. "Can we talk about something else now, if we're gonna be chummy?"

Kairi chuckled, bringing a hand to her face. "You don't have to be embarrassed," she said, and he huffed indignantly, which only made her laugh more. "I knew you were wrong."

"Wrong?" He squinted at her. "About what?"

"When you said you weren't a bad guy, but you weren't a good guy." She shook her head. "I think you've been a good guy the whole time, you just tried really hard not to be."

Lea's face screwed up sharply, his expression shifting from startled to disgruntled to uncertain and maybe even touching on sad somewhere before he settled on resigned, and he shook his head.

"I was wrong about a lot of stuff," he said, "but I don't think I was wrong about that. Axel wasn't a good guy. He was a bad guy who _wanted_ to be a good guy, but he waited too long to try."

Kairi was quiet for a moment, letting these words sink in, and then she got to her feet. Lea looked a little unsettled as she crossed the tram car and sat down beside him, half an arm's distance away. She kicked her feet back and forth a moment, then looked at him sidelong.

"Somebody told me once that if you have a dream, you can't wait, you have to act."

"Oh, you memorized that, huh? Sounds like someone who needed to take his own advice if you ask me." His voice was bitter, and she shook her head.

"Mm, I think maybe he did," she said, kicking her feet again, watching the auroras across the way.

"Too late," he muttered.

"Maybe that's why he got a second chance."

There was a long pause, and then Lea folded his arms again with a noncommittal grunt.

"I'm sorry I threw food at you that time," Kairi said then, stilling her legs and pressing her lips together, "and busted your hand up the other day. I still can't quite figure you out; you're kind of hard to get to know."

"Yeah, well..." He hefted a sigh. "Old habits, I guess."

"Think we could start over?"

He regarded her out of the corner of his eye, and she looked up at him with curious optimism. Kairi had wondered, while she was locked in that cell in the castle dungeon, why it had felt like Axel had helped her before. She still didn't have an answer for that, but something about the tone in his voice and the way his forehead crinkled up with puzzlement stirred the same feeling in her heart. Getting to know him wasn't going to be quick or easy, of that she had no doubt, but she had a feeling that Lea had a lot more answers than he realized. All she had to do was figure out what the questions were. She turned in her seat and bowed her head neatly at him.

"My name's Kairi," she said. "Nice to meet you. Since we're gonna be sparring partners, I hope we can be friends too."

Lea just stared at her a moment, then reached out and tapped one finger under her chin to lift her head.

"You sure you don't wanna wait 'til you get to know me before you decide you wanna be my friend?" he asked, and she smiled broadly and shook her head.

"Waiting isn't good enough," she said, and there was a single heavy beat of silence before Lea just threw his head back and laughed.

That was when Kairi decided maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all.


	4. The Next Aisle Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Riku is a terrible ninja.

Riku was convinced they were doing this on purpose. First they'd gone shoe shopping, of all things. There was nothing wrong with Lea's _boots_ , those were perfectly functional for fighting! They were sturdy and tall enough to buffer blows to the shins, even, so he didn't know why in the world Kairi had decided he needed new ones. For that matter, there was nothing wrong with the clothes _he_ had picked out for Lea. Kairi was just meddling for the sake of meddling, he was sure of it. Baggy pants left room for free movement, but baggy _sleeves_ got in the way of your swing, so a shirt had to either have no sleeves or have tight ones. Lea's coat had had tapered sleeves, at that, so he'd understood the concept well enough. Kairi just didn't get it.

She did, however, get Lea a pair of sneakers that completely negated all the shin protection of the boots. They were red and _canvas_ , which didn't even offer water resistance. She had said they were 'stylish', and Lea had agreed, and Riku had rolled his eyes from where he lurked in the next aisle over.

He wasn't _spying_ on them or anything! He just had to make sure Lea didn't do something weird to Kairi. Axel had kidnapped her, after all, and Riku had to make sure she stayed safe. If anything happened to her, it would be his fault, even if Lea was the cause of it. Not that he really thought Lea would do anything to her--he really did seem to have changed his song, and something in Riku was surprised that he was honestly proud of the older man for it. Waking up after diving into Sora's heart to see _Lea's_ face hovering over him alongside the king's had been a shock, to say the least.

That wasn't the point, though. He had to remain vigilant until he knew for certain that Lea had no intention of regressing back to his old ways. Kairi had been put in enough danger because of his own actions, and he wasn't going to allow _in_ action to put her at risk now.

Once the shoes had been taken care of, Kairi had eagerly ushered Lea into a trendy clothing store, explaining brightly that, as far as she could tell, orange was the new black. Riku had no idea what that meant, but he certainly hoped it wouldn't result in Lea wearing a full-length _orange_ coat instead. Thankfully, the fad only took them as far as a burnt orange baseball tee with dark blue accents and a pair of cropped khaki pants. Lea seemed uncertain about wearing what he called 'capris', whatever those were, worrying that they were for girls, but Kairi assured him that he pulled them off. He snorted a laugh then, something about getting arrested for indecent exposure in that case, and Riku had bristled fiercely before checking himself and ducking back down behind the clothing rack a few yards away.

By the time they were done, Lea had also procured a pair of stonewashed jeans, two sleeveless shirts, and a dark brown leather jacket that Kairi insisted was 'totally him'. It was strange, Riku thought, to see Lea acting... well, _normal_. He had smiled genuinely, laughed with abandon, and made comically animated gestures all through the shopping process, and if Riku hadn't known for a fact that Axel had spent ten years doing the Organization's dirty work, he never would have suspected that gabby, energetic Lea was anything but perhaps Kairi's dopey older brother.

"Lea, what are you doing?"

Riku snapped to attention when Kairi's voice rang out, tinged with disapproval. He glanced up over the top of the magazine he was pretending to read and watched as Kairi reached toward Lea as if to take something away from him. Lea in turn held his arm up over his head, a wallet clutched in his fingers. ... Had he stolen Kairi's wallet!?

"I told you I was paying for this," she insisted, standing on her tiptoes, but Lea was a good head and change taller than she was, and her reach came up far too short. "Come on, we had a deal!"

"This wasn't part of the deal," he said, still holding the wallet out of her reach. Wait, it was _his_ wallet? Lea frowned at her. "You bought me shoes--I'm not gonna let you buy me a whole wardrobe, that's just dumb. Do you even have a job?"

She tugged at the hem of her romper. "Well, no," she said, and Lea clicked his tongue.

"This junk's expensive," he said, and ignored the slightly offended look from the cashier. "The jacket alone is like almost six thousand. I'm not gonna let you drop this much munny on me, princess; got it memorized?"

She pressed her lips together and lowered her eyes, then made an indignant noise when Lea ruffled her hair fondly.

"If it's that important to you, you can buy me lunch," he snorted, and then lifted his chin, meeting Riku's eye directly as he added, "and maybe Riku, too, since he came all this way just to spy on us."

Riku made a startled noise in the back of his throat--how had he known he was even there?--then stared hard at the older man a moment before he just hefted a sigh and slowly moved toward the register. Kairi swatted at Lea, like she was disappointed he'd piped up, and Riku suddenly found himself wondering how long Lea had been waiting to call him out. Had he lost his stealth capabilities already?

"I wasn't eavesdropping," Riku said stiffly, and then immediately wanted to punch himself in the mouth. "Er... I mean, I was just... looking for a new jacket."

Lea paid for his clothes and turned to give Riku a thoroughly disenchanted look. "Wow, you're a _terrible_ liar," he snorted as he accepted his change and took the bag of clothes from the cashier. 

"Come on, Riku, you've been following us since we _got_ to Twilight Town," Kairi said, rolling her eyes. "If you wanted to come with us all you had to do was say so."

Riku hunched his shoulders, glowering as he walked stiff-legged alongside them out of the clothing store and into the red-gold sunset that hung perpetually over the town. He wasn't sure what was more embarrassing: that he'd been been found out or that he was apparently so see-through.

"How did you know?" he asked, a little peeved, and Kairi blew a raspberry.

He gave her an almost betrayed look, and she arched her eyebrows. "I've known you since we were like five years old," she said: "I _know_ you. I knew you would never let me go off with Lea unsupervised."

"Exactly!" he said. "I have to watch out for you."

Lea harrumphed. "What'd you think I was gonna _do_?" he asked. "Even if I _wanted_ to kidnap her again, where would I take her?"

Riku chose to ignore the hint of bitterness in Lea's tone, and instead turned his attention fully to Kairi. "Well can you blame me?" he asked.

"Yes," Lea said, and Riku continued his selective ignorance.

Kairi reached over and took one of Riku's hands in her own, bringing a bloom of heat to Riku's face. She gave him a wise smile and swung their arms back and forth.

"I think you worry too much," she said, and then turned to look at Lea. "He knows that if he tries anything I'll just bite him again."

Lea gave a disgruntled sort of squawk. "Hey, _no_ , no biting," he said, shaking his head and holding his free arm up like he was surrendering. "I think I still have a mark from that, you know? You nearabout bit clean through my glove."

"Well, you deserved it," she said, and Lea had no rebuttal.

Riku just shook his head. "You two are ridiculous," he said, unable to hide the grin tugging at his lips. "Okay, I shouldn't have followed you; how about _I_ buy lunch?"

Lea shrugged one shoulder. "I could not be more ambivalent about which one of you wants to pay for my food, really," he admitted, and Riku snorted.

"You're out of munny after buying that dumb jacket, huh?"

Lea bristled. "It's not dumb!" he insisted, though he didn't confirm or deny lack of funding. "I have it on good authority that it is 'totally me'."

"That's like calling _you_ dumb," Riku said.

"Hey, that is definitely _not_ what I meant," Kairi insisted.

Riku hid a laugh behind one hand as Lea glared at him.

"Just for that, you don't get your present," he huffed, and Riku made a face.

"Present?" He shook his head. "What are you talking about?"

"No, no, forget it," Lea said, making exaggerated swinging motions with his arms as he walked. "You lost your present privileges, you'll have to earn them back."

Riku just shook his head. Lea was probably just trying to get a favor out of him; nobody ever bought him stuff. Why would _Lea_ get him anything? That made no sense. He impulsively squeezed Kairi's hand, then pointed across the main road toward a row of buildings.

"That place looks kinda good," he said, indicating one in the center, and Lea paused long enough to shade his eyes and look.

"Oh," he said, and nodded. "Yeah, I've eaten there before. Good pizza. Better pasta."

Riku had forgotten that Axel had actually spent a lot of time here in Twilight Town--if he said this place was good it probably was. He met the older man's eye, brows lifted.

"Stamp of approval, then?" he asked, and Lea nodded.

"I would let you buy me lunch there, sure."

Riku rolled his eyes. "Don't get used to it," he said dryly. "This is... a reward for good behavior."

"Quit treating me like I'm a stray dog you're trying to train," Lea groused, and Kairi reached over with her free hand to take Lea's wrist.

"No more fighting," she said. "Let's just get some pizza and call today a successful day, okay?"

Lea chuckled, then gave Riku an inquisitive sort of look, a crooked and curious smile on his face. "Whaddaya say, sport?"

Riku glanced at Kairi, then at Lea, and then grinned a little despite himself. If nothing else, he felt like he knew Lea a little better after observing him in the store with Kairi. He couldn't say for sure how much of Lea's behavior had been sincere, though; had they really known he was there the whole time? Well, either way, Lea's current smile was an honest one--he was sure of that. He'd stood on the receiving end of enough of Axel's sly and sinister grins to be able to tell the difference. It would be a while before Riku would be able to really trust Lea completely, but maybe he could give him a little benefit of doubt.

"Sure," he said.

Success was relative, really, but even if the only results of the day were Lea having more appropriate sparring clothes and Kairi being happy about it, then yeah, it had been a successful day.


	5. Stars on Sleepless Nights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Riku acquires a tenant.

As much as Lea loved the beach, it was easy to forget that he'd grown up on a world without any. In fact, Radiant Garden hadn't had _any_ major bodies of water within the walls. There were ponds that dotted the town and the big fountain court near the castle, but there were no significant lakes and certainly no sea. He'd never been allowed past the gates to see the water beyond them that lined the outer gardens, but even that horizon hadn't been as wide and unbroken as that of Destiny Islands or Twilight Town.

Maybe that was _why_ he'd grown so fond of the beach: the grass was always greener, and all. He had been taught to swim fairly young, but the first time he had seen an ocean he had been far more terrified than he had been willing to admit. Water that covered such a vast amount of space with no land to break it up was almost unfathomable to him, and even now it made him a little nervous sometimes. Fire had never frightened him, especially not now that he could bend it so easily to his will. Fire burned, no questions asked and no guesses to be made. Fire, despite its dangerous reputation, didn't lie or leave you wondering what would happen if you touched it.

It was water that left him a little uneasy; water that could slip so easily through your hands one moment and knock you off your feet the next, water that made up most of the body yet could strangle and drown the very creatures it was so vital to... Fire was straightforward and frank, but water was shifty, untrustworthy. Water was full of paradoxes, and Lea had never much liked things he couldn't figure out. Water made him nervous and kept him guessing.

So in the end, maybe _that_ was why he liked the beach so much: Lea of all people appreciated an opponent he couldn't read.

The sand was cool and soft beneath him as he lay on the darkened beach, listening to the tide as it lapped at the shore on its way out. The sun that beat down on Destiny Islands was far too much during the day; he preferred sunset and fallen night to the broader day, anyway. Lea had always burned easily in the sun, which was ironic, in his opinion, but even if that hadn't been the case, he would rather keep to the cloak of dark. It was easier to hide in shadow, after all, and when one had spent nearly half their life keeping out of sight, one tended to continue the habit. Oh, Lea enjoyed the company of others well enough--he was garrulous, friendly, and even polite most of the time--but he still defaulted to keeping to himself.

It seemed that wouldn't be the case tonight, though.

He turned his head when the soft sound of footsteps met his ears. Squinting in the darkness, he could vaguely make out the shape of the approaching figure: tall, but not as tall as him, broader though, with an even gait and heavy shoulders. So it was Riku. He cast his eyes back to the star-spotted sky overhead as the younger man sat down about a foot and a half away, one knee drawn up and something unsettled in his presence.

"I'm always surprised when I see familiar stars on other worlds," Lea said after a moment of not uncomfortable silence. He lifted one hand and pointed out a boxy pattern of stars, connecting them with his finger. "That constellation there," he said, "is Pegasus, like that guy's horse with wings, at the Coliseum."

Riku looked a little surprised, like he hadn't expected Lea to know anything about astronomy. He guessed it was kind of an odd thing for a person like him to have familiarity with. He had spent many nights in Radiant Garden laying on the roof of his house, just staring up at the sky, wondering if anything was staring back. He hadn't known other worlds existed until his own world had fallen, but he had wondered his whole life up til then.

Riku lifted a hand and pointed. "I know the North Star," he said, "but I don't really know any of the constellations." He rubbed the back of his neck, like this reflected poorly on him in comparison somehow. "I can navigate by the stars, though."

Lea whistled, low and impressed. "Like oldschool sailors?" he asked. "That's actually pretty cool. I dunno that I could do that." He had never tried, in any case. Didn't the stars move around as the worlds turned, too? How the hell were you supposed to keep track of the directions with compass points that didn't hold still? He decided he wasn't _going_ to try.

Casting Riku a glance, Lea pressed his lips together, trying to fight the urge to grin.

"Ain't it past your bedtime?" he asked, and Riku shot him a dirty look.

"See, we had this nice conversation going and then you had to ruin it," he complained, and Lea snorted, untying the scarf he had draped around his neck and twisting it between his hands.

"What, by being a smartass?" he asked. "You'd better get used to that if we're gonna be working together, sport."

Riku looked a little frustrated. "Well, you're still awake, too," he shot back, blustering a little. "Adults don't have bedtimes."

"Adults, right," he said, shaking his head. It was more a crack at himself, and how it was easy enough to pretend to be a grownup, but when push came to shove it wasn't what he wanted. Riku seemed to take the remark a little more personally, though, and made an exasperated noise.

"I don't need my students to babysit me," Riku said, and Lea snorted.

"Yeah, well, I just don't sleep anymore."

Wait, he hadn't meant to say that out loud. Lea held his breath a moment, then lowered his eyes from the stars. Riku just peered curiously at him before he sighed and also flopped backward into the sand.

"You too, huh?" he asked. Lea's eyebrows shot up and he turned his head to boggle at him.

"Wait, what?"

"Forget it," Riku said, shaking his head. "It's not important."

"Liar." Lea turned back to the sky. "You wouldn't'a brought it up if it wasn't important."

"You started it."

"Touché."

There was a long stretch of quiet, and then Riku made a soft noise.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" he asked. "I mean, here on Destiny Islands. In the middle of the night." He glanced at him. "I mean I get the insomnia, but at least I never went to sulk on a whole other world."

"Who says I wasn't here the whole time?" Lea countered without looking at him, and Riku made a bit of a face.

"You never went home?" he asked. "You've been here all day?"

"I'm always here all day." Lea still didn't look at him. He wasn't interested in getting into the specifics of things, but he didn't really want Riku thinking he was crazy or something. He wasn't sure this would help his case, but at least he wouldn't think he was in the habit of worldhopping every time he couldn't sleep. "After we're done with practice or whatever at Yen Sid's place, I come back here with you and Kairi, we bicker and kick sand at each other, you guys go home, and I... don't."

"You don't go _home_?" Riku sounded flabbergasted.

Lea just shrugged one shoulder. "Hasn't been home in like ten years, anyway," he said noncommittally. Then he shook his head. "Forget it, it's not important."

"Lea you can't just be a beach hobo." Riku's tone belied the absurdity of what he was actually saying.

"Don't crush my dreams, I can be whatever I want," Lea replied, petulant.

Riku sat up and snatched the scarf from Lea's hands. "I'm serious," he said as Lea made a vain swipe for the scarf. "You can't just live on the beach."

"Give it back!" he demanded, and Riku just held the scarf up over his head.

"What if a storm hits?"

"This from the guy who was gonna take a raft to another world with nothing but fish and coconuts." Lea arched one eyebrow at him. "Yeah, Kairi told me about that."

"Traitor," Riku grumbled, his face heating up with embarrassment. He wrapped the pilfered scarf around his hand. "I'm still serious," he said. "We can get some pretty intense storms out here. You could really get hurt."

"I've already been zapped more times than I care to recall," Lea said, shaking his head. "Larxene was way worse than getting struck by actual lightning."

"I dunno about that," Riku said, and then got to his feet, offering Lea one hand. "Come on," he said, and Lea stared at the scarf around his hand with a frown.

"Is this a trap?" he asked, and Riku rolled his eyes.

"My parents' house is huge." He made a beckoning gesture with the fingers of his outstretched hand. "You can take one of the guest rooms. If you're not gonna go home, you should at least have a place to go instead." He shook his head, smiling a little. "You really can't be a beach hobo."

Lea frowned at Riku's hand, then looked up at the younger man with scrutiny. He trusted Riku to a certain extent, of course: he trusted him not to stab him in the back. Or the front, really. He basically trusted Riku to not kill one of his own students. But that was about as far as he would even attempt to throw this relationship just yet. The thing was, Riku was an infuriatingly trustworthy sort. He was the eternal Good Guy, and while it was a completely different sort of goodness than Sora's (who erred on the side of sweet enough to give you cavities), Riku just wasn't an unkind or spiteful person. Lea knew and accepted this. Even when he and Riku had stood on opposing sides, he had never thought the kid was _mean_. He looked out for his own, and fought fiercely to protect the people he had charged himself with keeping safe, but he wasn't mean.

Did he trust Riku to not be full of crap? No, no he didn't... but maybe he could trust him when he offered a roof over his head.

He reached up and accepted Riku's hand this time, instead of just brushing it aside, and allowed him to pull him to his feet. Dusting the sand off his backside, Lea gave Riku a suspicious look.

"You sure your folks won't mind?" he asked.

He shook his head. "Nah, they prolly won't even notice you're there," he admitted with a shrug. "They're really busy people."

Lea met Riku's eye and for just a moment, he wondered if Riku wasn't just as painfully lonesome as _he_ was. Well, that wasn't a discussion for tonight.

"All right then," he said. "Lead the way, _maestro_."

Riku blustered again, and Lea took the opportunity to make another grab for the scarf. Riku deftly spun away, still holding the scarf out of reach.

"Don't call me that," he said, and Lea shook his head.

"What, ' _maestro_ '?" he asked. "You know it means 'teacher', right?" Riku blinked, surprised, and Lea snapped the scarf out of his hands. "I'm not making fun of you," he said, holding the scarf out of Riku's reach and then tying it back around his neck. "You're teachin' me, right?"

Riku hunched his shoulders. "I didn't know that was what it meant," he said. "I thought you were just calling me 'Master' to get under my skin."

Lea chuckled, straightening the scarf and shoving Riku's shoulder with one hand. "If I wanted to get under your skin, you'd know it," he said. "I'm very good at it."

"Ugh." Riku shook his head hopelessly, then dusted the sand off his legs and waved a hand over his shoulder. "Come on, I've got a boat at the little pier," he said, and Lea tilted his head.

"Don't we need fish and some coconuts first?"

Riku turned and glowered at him, and Lea just grinned fetchingly to let him know that yes, this was him attempting to get under his skin.

"I'm never going to hear the end of this, am I?"

Lea just laughed and fell into stride two paces behind Riku as they headed for the pier. Maybe he could learn to have confidence in Riku as a colleague, but it was going to take some time. Thankfully, that was something he had an abundance of at the moment. He wasn't sure Riku knowing how to navigate by the stars would do any good when it came to maneuvering through the choppy waters of trust, but it was better than having no compass at all.


	6. Sand Angels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a student proves to be a pretty good teacher.

Riku had waited until the clock read 7:00 before getting out of bed. He'd been up since just after six, but he knew it worried his parents when he was awake that early; something about teenagers needing way more sleep than he ever managed to get. By the time he'd leisurely gotten dressed and managed to tame his bedhead, it was about 7:30 and he could hear his mother moving around in the kitchen downstairs.

"Morning," he said, sidling into the kitchen and ducking behind the refrigerator door, hunting for some juice.

"Honey, why don't you ever sleep in on weekends?" his mother asked, frowning at him over her cup of coffee. Hanako was beautiful in a sharp way, with striking cheekbones and platinum blond hair. Even first thing in the morning she somehow looked like she belonged in a magazine, her hair pulled back in a bun and her sea-green eyes bright. Riku fought the urge to grimace at the pet name, though; he hated it when she called him that. It felt patronizing.

"Weekends shouldn't be an excuse to waste time," he hedged, retrieving a bottle of orange juice and a cup of what appeared to be paopu yogurt. "I've got a lot of work to do."

"I wish you would relax sometimes," she said, getting to her feet and taking Riku's cheek in one hand as she set her mug in the sink. She clicked her tongue as Riku kind of pulled away, focusing on his yogurt.

"You don't tell Aki to relax," he said sullenly, and she frowned at him.

"Your brother has a job, Riku," she said. "You're still young, and all you do day in and day out is train, though; it has to be exhausting. What is it you're _training_ for, anyway?"

Riku bit the inside of his cheek. He couldn't exactly tell his parents the truth about Xehanort, about the Keyblade, about his role in the safety of all the worlds. He _certainly_ hadn't said anything about Ansem's presence in his heart--that would just have them thinking he was insane. He had assured them that his previous extended absences had been retreats to hone his skills. He wasn't sure if he was pleased they'd bought it so easily, or just disappointed they weren't more suspicious. He usually decided on pleased, if only because his family worried about him so much all the time anyway that worrying them further was about the very last thing on his to-do list ever. It was like they didn't think he could take care of himself or something. Just because he caught cold easily didn't mean he was a helpless weakling--they would put him on lockdown if he ever told them the truth, even if he assured them he'd already been _doing_ this for several years.

"I just want to stay in shape," he said, shaking his head, not sure if he liked this yogurt or not and focusing more on trying to figure that out rather than his mother's words.

Hanako sighed softly, shaking her head. "Well, I'm glad you at least brought a friend over," she said, and Riku jumped.

"Wait, what?" He blinked at his mother. "Lea?" It had been late when they'd come back last night--how had she even known he was here?

Hanako canted her head. "Yes," she said, making a vague gesture over her head. "Tall boy, red hair--you did invite him to stay here for a while, yes?"

Riku stared. "Yeah, but..." He shook his head quickly, then rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm sorry I didn't ask," he said. "We got in late last night. Did he wake you?"

"No, he was awake when I got up, but he was quiet," she said, rinsing the mug and placing it in the dishwasher. "He made pancakes, actually, and then left about ten minutes before you woke up."

Riku nearly dropped his yogurt. "He's not still sleeping?" Riku had thoroughly expected to have to drag Lea out of bed at noon or something. He knew the older man liked to nap, he had just supposed that meant he slept in, too. The idea that he was awake early enough to have made pancakes and already left was so shocking that Riku was quite literally speechless for a moment. "He's not still _here_?" he managed finally, and Hanako clicked her tongue again.

"Are you sure you don't need some more sleep, honey?" she asked. "I just said he already left. He said he was going to the island and to meet him there whenever." She closed the dishwasher with her foot and dried her hands. "Very polite fellow."

"Polite?" It seemed Riku was reduced to parroting. Lea, polite? To his _mother_? It seemed her really was full of surprises. "Sorry, I'm just a little startled; he kind of ran with a rough crowd for a while. I thought he'd have a harder time... adjusting to being around normal people again." Not that their lives were particularly _normal_ , but he wasn't about to get into specifics with his mother.

Shoveling the rest of the yogurt into his mouth and rinsing the cup out before tossing it into the recycling bin (Hanako insisted on the house being as green as possible), Riku swiped his thumb against the corner of his lip and downed his glass of orange juice.

"I'll be going, then," he said quickly, dashing past his mother.

"Take care," she called after him, moving toward the door behind him as he stepped into his shoes. "Will you be home for dinner?"

"I'll try," he said.

"All right." She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, and Riku sort of flinched. Ugh, this felt so... juvenile somehow, but he couldn't really tell his _mother_ not to kiss him, that was so rude.

"Bye," he said softly, averting his eyes and tugging the door open, leaving his mother standing in the foyer with a dish towel in one hand and the other on her hip.

* * *

The morning was cool, dewy, too early for the afternoon sun to have burned the dampness of the shore away yet. It was always quiet this early, before the island really woke up, before the gulls started their rounds. Riku really loved this time of day, even if he wished sometimes that he could sleep in. He loved being awake before the rest of the world was, but there were days when he knew he would have benefited from a few more hours of sleep. Actually that was most days.

"Uh...?"

He glanced down when his steps fell unevenly, like something had disturbed the sand, and then made a face.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me."

They had made sand angels. For crying out loud, Lea and Kairi had made _sand angels._ Oh, he knew it had been them: Lea was taller than most, and who else would make sand angels with him? Selphie, maybe, but where there was Selphie there was almost always Kairi. It had probably been Kairi's idea, at that. Glancing back up, he could vaguely make out the shape of two people up the beach, and decided to see just what they were up to. His previous efforts at being stealthy hadn't gone so well, but this time he had the home turf advantage; he could take the path that went near the falls and hide behind the bushes without being seen.

Crouched behind a big hamanashi bush, he peered through the leaves, frowning a little. What the hell was Lea doing? He was standing behind Kairi with both hands on her shoulders, and she had her eyes closed. He had better not have been doing anything creepy, Riku would kill him. Cupping one hand by his ear, he listened.

"I don't think this is working, Lea," she said, shaking her head, and he reached around to put his hand over her eyes.

"Nope," he said, "keep your eyes closed. This'll work, I promise."

"You _promise_?" Kairi sounded dubious, and Lea straightened his shoulders.

"I don't make promises I can't keep, Princess," he said, putting his hand back on her shoulder and leaning forward so his head was above hers. "Now concentrate."

She was quiet for a moment, then shook her head again. "I still can't feel anything," she said sullenly, but didn't open her eyes this time. "I think I'm just gonna stink at this forever."

"Don't be such a pessimist, it's unbecoming," Lea scolded.

"It was easier when I could just be angry," she said, and he clicked his tongue.

"You'll never get the hang of it if you base it all in anger," he said, and Riku finally realized what they were doing. Magic, he was talking about _magic_! Was Lea seriously trying to tutor Kairi? Was he seriously this lucky, to actually have such good students?

Kairi made an exasperated noise and turned then, opening her eyes and frowning up at Lea.

"I just can't do it," she said, looking torn between anger and outright disappointment. "I've been _trying_ , but I just stink!"

"You don't stink," Lea said, fixing her with a stern look. "You've actually got a lot of power, you just don't have any control. That's why I said anger wasn't the way to go. How do you feel when you're angry? Out of control, right?"

"Kinda," she said, scratching her head and scuffing one bare foot in the sand. Riku absently noted that they were both barefoot, and wondered where their shoes were.

"So that ain't what you want," he said. He reached out then and poked her in the chest, over her heart. "Everybody says magic comes from the heart," he told her, shaking his head, "but that's nonsense. I couldn't do it at all until I _lost_ my heart. Heart's got nothin' to do with it." He lifted his hand and tapped the crown of her head then. "Magic's up here. It takes a little smarts and a lot'a mental stamina, and you gotta find the balance between a struck match and an explosion." He shook his head again. "That ain't easy. Not everybody can do it."

"So then why are you trying to help me?" she asked, her tone erring on the side of angry now, like she was upset that he was wasting his time. "I'm one of those people who can't do it."

"Not true," he said, wagging a finger and taking her shoulders to spin her back around. "Now would you stop whining and just do what I tell you to do?"

"You're not the boss of me," she said, but gave a long-suffering sigh and closed her eyes anyway. "All right, all right, I'll try one more time. Close my eyes, find a center."

"Right," he said. "Now imagine the spell you wanna do. Fire, for now, so I can play damage control."

"Not instilling me with great optimism here, Lea."

He mostly ignored this.

"Now imagine how _fire_ feels," he said. "Not just the part where it can burn you, you have to think of _all_ of fire. The way it moves, the way it flickers--everything, from the tops of the flames down to the embers left over when it's out. Think of a campfire, and how welcoming it is, or a lit lantern in the dark. How's'at make you feel?"

"It's... yeah, welcoming," she said, furrowing her brow. "Sometimes the boys and I would make a bonfire here on the beach and tell scary stories." She smiled wistfully, her eyes still closed. "I kind of miss those times."

"Let me guess: you were the best at the stories, and Sora and Riku were mostly just peeing themselves."

"Mostly just Sora," she laughed. "Riku likes scary stories."

"You don't say~"

Riku didn't like the way he said that. What was that even supposed to mean? She just _had_ said!

Lea released her shoulders and reached down to take her wrists, lifting them up in front of her.

"Open your hands," he said, "like you're holding a beach ball between 'em." She did. "Now think of that welcoming feeling, about the fire. You can't just be angry--fire ain't all rage and anger and hurt, you can't think of it that way or that's all you'll _do_ with it, is be angry and hurt people."

Riku shifted a little where he was still crouched in the bushes, frowning. Lea said that like the voice of experience, and he found himself wondering how _Lea_ had learned to use his fire so well. Who had been his teacher? Surely not Saïx, with whom he knew Lea had been closer than most of the other Organization members. All the other more senior members didn't seem any more tutelary than that, either... Had Lea just taught himself? Had it all been trial and error? That sounded really dangerous.

And really lonesome.

"Got the feeling?" he asked, jarring Riku out of his musing, and he looked back up in time to see Lea extend one of Kairi's arms out to her side. Kairi nodded with an affirmative noise, and Lea smiled. "Okay, then go with it," he said. "Gather it all up, and focus it into your hand. Then release it, like you're flicking water off your fingers."

Riku suddenly realized that Kairi's hand was aimed directly at the bush he was hiding in. He realized an instant too late, letting out a startled cry as a little ball of flame flew from Kairi's fingertips and landed less than six inches from the bush. Snapping to his feet, leaves and twigs in his hair and a look of alarm on his face, Riku just gawped at them in disbelief. He had almost been set on fire!

Kairi opened her eyes with a start and looked over as Riku emerged from the bush, and she couldn't seem to decide if she was surprised to see him or... _not_ surprised to see him. Lea, meanwhile, was just laughing.

"There, see?" he guffawed. "You don't stink, it just takes a little effort until you get the hang of it. If you'd just gone with the anger bit, you'd'a set Riku on fire!"

Riku bristled visibly. "Wait, you knew I was there?" _How did he do that?_

"I knew the second you stepped onto the beach, sport," Lea said, ruffling Kairi's hair and then folding his arms. "You're a hundred years too early to sneak up on me."

Kairi swatted at him. "Wait, you seriously knew he was there?" she gasped. "What if I _had_ set him on fire?"

"Then that would have been a valuable lesson for both of you."

"I can't believe you sometimes," she said, jogging over to Riku and reaching up to pull some of the twigs out of his hair as Lea just continued laughing. "Are you okay?" she asked, and Riku bit down on the corners of his mouth, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, and then shook his head. "You did really good," he said, nodding to where the sand had been scorched. "Fire's easy to lose control of, but you kept it small and contained."

"Yeah, well... it's a good thing Lea's actually not a bad teacher," she said, plucking another twig from his hair and tossing it aside. "I could have really hurt you."

"Oh, please." Lea came up behind her and clicked his tongue. "Like I'd have let you fry him. I'm not about to let anything happen to my own teacher, sheesh."

Riku inhaled to speak, then stopped, suddenly a little dumbfounded. "I didn't know you felt that way," he said bluntly, and Lea tilted his head.

"What, that you're my teacher?" he asked. "I told you that already. ' _Maestro_ ', remember?"

"No, that you wouldn't..." _Let anything happen to me?_ "Never mind, it's--"

"Not important," Lea finished for him, reaching out and plucking one stray twig from his hair, right at the top of his head where Kairi couldn't see it. "Yeah, yeah, I know."

Riku could feel his face heating up with something amid embarrassment and just plain shame. It was a little abashing that Lea knew him this well after such a short time. Was he really so transparent, or was Lea just a lot more perceptive than he let on?

Lea ruffled Kairi's hair again, grinning. "See, though? What'd I tell ya? I don't make promises I can't keep." She glanced over her shoulder at him, and he postured a little. "Y'ain't the awful mage you think you are, Kairi; you just need a different teaching method than old man Merlin adopts."

"Ah!" Kairi gasped, bringing one hand to her face, and Riku jumped, startled. Had something happened? "That's the first time you ever called me by my name!" she said, and Lea frowned.

"What?" He shook his head. "No, that can't be right; I..."

" _Axel_ called me by my name," she said, looking all too pleased by this turn of events, "but you always called me Princess, since we started training together."

Lea scratched at his temple in thought, and Riku pondered this a moment too. No, she was right: he had used Kairi's name when speaking to _him_ , _about_ Kairi, but he'd always called her 'Princess' to her face, that he recalled. He guessed he hadn't really thought about it, but being called by your name instead of just a title was kind of important, right? He called Riku ' _maestro_ ' and 'sport', but he'd called him by name before those had been adopted. Kairi had always been 'Princess' to her face.

Kairi reached over and took one of Lea's hands, looking really happy about this. Lea just looked a little uncomfortable holding hands.

"I'm really glad," she said. "I don't mind a nickname, I know you like those, but it felt like you were calling me 'Princess' because you didn't think you were allowed to call me by my name."

"Wh--that isn't what it was, okay?" Lea insisted, glancing away, and Riku snorted a laugh.

That usually mean that was entirely what it was. 

"Thank you," Kairi said, releasing Lea's hand then, "for helping me with magic. I hope you'll help me more in the future; you're... really good at it."

Riku hid his amusement behind one hand as Lea turned several shades of red and pulled at the back of his neck.

"Maybe you should start calling him 'senior'," he suggested, and Kairi looked like she was considering it. Lea just blustered.

"Hey, _no_ , do not call me that," he said stiffly, crossing both arms up over his head. "Denied, nope, no way sorbet, I will not answer to that so don't even go there."

Now Kairi was laughing too, and Lea just looked mortified. Riku took this as penance for embarrassing him all those times, and teasing him about the raft and coconuts. Lea just folded his arms and harrumphed.

"Fine, yuk it up," he said with a sniff, and then gave Riku a severe look. "Just for that, you bought yourself another week of present restriction."

Riku abruptly stopped laughing. He'd actually forgotten all about this supposed gift Lea had gotten for him while out shopping with Kairi the other day.

"Wait, you were serious?" he asked, and Lea rolled his eyes.

"Of course I'm serious," he said. "Keep this up and I'll make you wait until your birthday."

"You don't even know when that is," he countered, and Lea just grinned impishly.

"I could ask your _mom_ ," he said, and Riku made a noise in the back of his throat. Lea looked pleased with himself. "She happens to think I'm charming. And that I make excellent pancakes."

"She also thinks soap operas are riveting television."

Lea examined his fingernails. "And exactly none of this is going to get you your present any faster or keep your ma from having opinions that work in my favor."

Touché; he wasn't going to win this one.

"Ugh, you're impossible," he said, quickly shoving the idea of Lea being friends with his mother out of his mind. It was just too weird. He clapped his hands sharply then. "All right, enough goofing around," he said, and then pointed at each of them. "Keyblades out, now, I want to see your progress."

This was met with a dissenting chorus of _'aww!'_ from both parties.

"If you had time to make sand angels, you had time to practice," Riku said, and Lea snorted a laugh.

"You're just jealous you missed out on the fun, lazybones."

"I'm not lazy," Riku said. "Frankly I was expecting to have to drag you out of bed at noon."

"Surprise," Lea said, waving his fingers. Riku drew his own Keyblade then, as if it would be incentive for him to get serious, and Lea quickly backpedaled and lifted both hands. "Oh no," he said, "I'm calling foul if you're coming after me again."

"I won't attack you unarmed," Riku promised. This time.

"That's not really a compelling reason for me to be armed, now, is it?" Lea said, and Riku hefted a sigh.

"I really have the most impossible students," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose and shaking his head. As Kairi drew Destiny's Embrace, though, and Lea fumbled only a moment or two before producing his Keyblade, Riku had to figure he could have done a lot worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> super thanks to everyone who's been following this! 500 hits aww ye. also thanks to everyone who has left kudos and comments, they really make my day.
> 
> extra mega ultra super thanks to Saree for helping out a lot with some Riku headcanon and being a rad beta!


	7. Mission Statements

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a wild plot appears.

"I bet this is Lea's fault. I know _I_ haven't done anything bad today."

Lea swatted at Kairi and she laughed, twisting out of the way. Well it only served to reason, in her opinion: why else would Master Yen Sid ask the three of them to come to his study atop the tower? Obviously someone was in trouble.

"Why do you guys always think I've done something wrong?" Lea complained, folding his arms as they climbed the steps. "Here I am, just trying to be a good student, and you just have no faith in me, princess."

She knew that tone. He was joking, of course. Over the past few weeks of training, she'd gotten to know Lea quite a bit, and considered him a good friend now. He reminded her a lot of Riku, to be honest: he was biting and sarcastic when things didn't go the way he wanted them to, but was actually pretty soft and kindhearted. He just didn't want anyone to _know_ that.

" _Guys_ ," Riku said, rolling his eyes and reaching for the door as they crested the stairs. "I think if someone was in trouble, Master Yen Sid would have just called that person to his study. He's not the type to embarrass someone in front of everyone else."

Kairi supposed he had a point.

"Whaddaya think's up, then?" Lea asked, pulling at the back of his neck and looking a bit nervous.

"It doesn't matter what I think is up," Riku insisted, grasping the handle and giving the door a push. "Maybe we should stop guessing and just go find out."

Lea glanced at Kairi, making an exaggeratedly serious face--mocking Riku--and she hid a laugh behind one hand. She was pretty sure Riku just rolled his eyes before stepping into the office and giving Yen Sid a polite bow at the waist.

"Master Yen Sid, you called for us?" he said, and Kairi scrabbled into the room after him, leaving Lea to close the door behind them.

Kairi was still a little bit awed by the old wizard. With his intense eyes and stern features, he looked really intimidating. Riku had of course assured her that he was a kind man, and only had the worlds' best interests in mind, but she still thought he looked a little ominous. Maybe it was the hat.

"Riku, Kairi, Lea, thank you for coming," he said, moving away from the window where he'd been peering out into the expanse beyond the tower and taking a seat. Kairi straightened her back a bit where she stood and tried to look studious. "I am pleased with how your training has been going," Yen Sid said quietly, stroking his beard. "Despite a rocky beginning, the three of you seem to work well together, and that makes the entire undertaking easier, I must presume."

Riku nodded stoically.

"They don't always take things seriously," he said, giving Lea a pointed look, and then he turned his eyes back to Yen Sid, "but they're good students, I guess."

"You _guess_?" Lea echoed with an incredulous shake of his head, and Kairi laughed softly.

"Wielding a Keyblade is an art that can always be honed further," Yen Sid said. "Even those who are called masters can never truly master every facet of the Keyblade; it simply holds too many secrets for one lifetime."

"Of course, Master," Riku said, bowing his head, and Kairi just peered at him. Riku looked so serious in that moment, his eyes locked on Yen Sid and his shoulders thrown back. "I still have a lot to work on, myself."

"I have a project I would like the three of you to help me with," Yen Sid said after a brief pause. "You are aware that the train that connects this world to Twilight Town used to connect many other worlds as well, correct?"

"You showed me the routes it covered," Kairi said, intrigued, "in one of your old books. The tracks connected so many worlds, once."

"It was truly a remarkable mode of transport, long ago," the old wizard said with a sage nod. "It utilized the spaces between worlds in a much safer capacity than The Lanes Between or the Dark Corridors, and did not require the aerial combat skills necessary to pilot a Gummi Ship. The routes were efficient and straightforward: it is no wonder, then, that the Heartless sought to commandeer the tracks for their own uses."

"And that's why the train lines were shut down, right?" Lea asked, folding his arms over his chest and tilting his head a little. "If the Heartless got a hold of the routes, they'd have been everywhere in no time flat."

"Precisely," Yen Sid said. "Xehanort's reach is long already; if he were to ever have discovered this method of travel, he could have used the Heartless to consume many more worlds. Only one track remained open: that which connects my tower to Twilight Town, and even that was a calculated risk." He paused (perhaps for dramatic effect), and then regarded Riku. "However, now that the Heartless are under control and are no longer swarming worlds in droves, now that Xehanort has fallen back to regroup, it may perhaps behoove our efforts to utilize these train routes once more. If we are to maintain the peace and prevent Xehanort from tainting all the worlds with his plans for use of the Darkness, we will need a safe and fast means to access any world at a moment's notice."

"What d'you need us to do, Master Yen Sid?" Riku asked, his spine straight and his hands fisted at his sides.

"I wish for the three of you to use the train to access one of the worlds the lines once connected to," he said. "An old comrade of mine oversees the safety of the world, and will be able to tell you if the Heartless are still a threat. If he has deemed the world adequately safe from the Heartless, we may reopen the route to the world again and use the train to access it as we did once long ago. You will have to use the utmost discretion, as always when visiting other worlds, but I feel the three of you are up to the task."

Kairi's heart sped up, and she brought her hands to her face.

"Master Yen Sid, you want us to actually go to another world?" she asked.

"Yes, Kairi," he replied with a nod. "It is a world Riku has been to before, so you should have no trouble finding your way. When you are ready, the train will take you there; all you need do is make use of the access panel at the front of it. As more worlds are reconnected, they will appear as destination options for you."

"Thank you, Master Yen Sid," Riku said, bowing his head again; "we'll make sure to carry out this mission with the utmost discretion."

Kairi had barely heard anything past 'yes'. She was finally going to get to go to another world! In traveling with Riku before they'd been reunited with Sora, she'd seen a few other worlds, but their time had been so limited, and they'd been sort of on the run the whole time, that she'd been unable to actually _explore_ any of them. This was it: she was finally going to get to see another world! She would get to meet new people, try new food, see new places--just like Sora and Riku had during all that time she had been left back on Destiny Islands.

She'd been waiting for this for two years.

She didn't even realize she had followed Riku out into the hall until the click of the door and Lea's amused laughter jarred her from her thoughts.

"'Utmost discretion' huh?" Lea gave Riku a sly look. "That didn't sound like you at all."

Riku's gaze shifted uncomfortably. "Shut up," he said, and Lea snorted.

"Okay, use 'discretion' in a _different_ sentence, Shakespeare," he said, and Riku balked.

Kairi came to his rescue. She snapped both arms out and grabbed Riku's wrists, giving an eager little bounce.

"Riku, Riku this is so _exciting_!" she gasped, bouncing in place and squeezing his hands. The startled look on his face hardly registered. "I'm finally going to see new worlds! Just like you and Sora did!"

"K-Kairi, calm down," Riku stammered, looking at her hands around his for a moment before his cheeks flushed pink and he glanced away. "It isn't that big a deal; Yen Sid even said it was a world we've already explored--"

"A world _you've_ already explored," she corrected quickly, releasing his hands and turning to look at Lea then. "You've both done a lot of traveling between worlds, right? Well, I haven't, so this is really exciting for me! I can't wait--I've wanted to see other worlds since before I ever left Destiny Islands!"

"Right, on a raft," Lea snorted, hiding his amusement in one hand, "with some fish and coconuts."

Kairi kicked his shoe and then hurried to follow Riku down the stairs. Why was he being so stiff about this? Couldn't he even be a little bit happy for her? He of all people should have understood her position: he'd wanted to see new worlds, too, right? And he'd _gotten_ to. She hadn't yet, so of course she was elated.

"Riku, wait up," she called, jumping the last two steps and catching his wrist again before he could open the door to head out of the tower. "What's wrong? Aren't you even a little bit excited about this assignment? Master Yen Sid really must think we've made good progress if he's giving us missions on other worlds now."

"I'm glad," he said after an instant of hesitation, "that he thinks you two are ready for this. I guess I'm just a little worried."

"You're always worried," Lea said, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans and one eyebrow arched sharply. "I'd say you're gonna go grey before you're twenty, but you kind of already beat me to the punchline of that one."

"My hair isn't _grey_."

"Sadly the same can't be said for your sense of humor."

"His white hair is Sora's fault, anyway," Kairi snickered, and Riku just make a frustrated noise.

"Look, can we just focus on our assignment?" he asked tersely, tugging his hand free from Kairi's and giving the both of them a frown. "This isn't the time for joking around. Kairi, going to other worlds isn't a _game_ , okay? We have to be careful and not draw a lot of attention to ourselves. We can't meddle in too many things or it could mess stuff up for the progress of the world."

"Right, because you and Sora were both _so_ careful not to interfere with any of the worlds you visited," Lea said, rolling his eyes.

"We helped them for the better," Riku insisted. "If we hadn't, things would have been _worse_."

"Uh huh." Lea didn't look convinced.

Kairi took a deep breath and held it a moment, then exhaled. "I know it isn't a game, Riku," she said, though it was true she might have let her excitement get the better of her in the moment. Of course Riku was worried--Lea made a valid point: Riku _was_ always worried, especially when she was involved. He knew she lacked the experience both he and Lea had in traveling to other worlds, so of course he was going to be concerned for her safety in joining them. Kairi did know him that well, at least.

She gave him a soft smile.

"I'll be careful," she said, "I promise. I'll take the mission seriously, and follow your lead. You don't have to worry about me so much."

Riku's face colored again, and he shook his head. "Th-that isn't what this is about!" he said, in that way that meant it was at least 65% of what this was about.

"You and Lea will be with me," she said, her smile broadening then. "I'll be fine."

Lea reached out then and ruffled her hair with one hand. She made a noise of protest and swatted at him, and he caught her wrist easily in one long hand, holding it away so she couldn't hit him before he looked at Riku.

"She's got a point," he said. "Come on, Riku, relax a little, before you give yourself a stroke. You're not gonna let anything happen to her, and neither am I, got it memorized?"

Riku didn't look entirely sure about this, but Kairi could only smile. There was a warmth in her chest and a squeezing sensation behind her ribs at Lea's words. She knew Lea was a good person at heart, but he'd never actually volunteered to protect her this way before. Kairi didn't _want_ to have to be protected, but she knew Riku wouldn't be satisfied unless he thought she was safe. Lea's words might not have put all of his worries to rest, but they helped: she could see it in his posture.

Lea released her wrist, and Kairi folded her hands together in front of her.

"If Master Yen Sid thinks we're ready for this, then we must be," she said. "Unless you're planning to disagree with him...?"

Riku looked uncertain, then shook his head. "No way," he said. "I... I definitely think you two are ready for more than just sparring on the beach."

Kairi beamed, glancing up at Lea, who just cast his eyes to the ceiling and stuffed his hands back into his pockets. She walked past Riku and grabbed the door handle then, tugging it open and bounding down the stairs into the grass to head for the ledge where the train would appear.

"Then let's go!" she said eagerly. "I don't want to disappoint Master Yen Sid. Or you, Riku."

"I don't think you could ever disappoint me, Kairi," Riku said, almost too quietly for her to hear, and she turned back to look at him, her lips parted in surprise. Almost as soon as he'd said it, though Riku had blustered and waved her off. "Go, go, the sooner we get going the sooner we can complete the mission."

She reached for his hand again, and after a moment of fluster he gave it to her. Lea refused to pull his hand from his pocket, so she just looped her arm through his, and with that they headed toward the edge of the grass. As the shimmering teal tracks rose into view, Kairi could scarcely contain her glee. She was finally going to be of use to Riku and Sora--no more being left behind. This time she wasn't going to just be a spectator, she wasn't going to just sit idly by while Riku and everyone else suffered to keep her safe. This time she was going to help her friends protect other worlds.

This time, Kairi wasn't just going to be a princess, she was going to be a guardian too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whooo second anniversary of posting this fic! as always, thank you to Saree for being a rad beta, and thanks to everyone who has been reading! i would love to know what you guys think so please don't ever hesitate to leave a comment, they make my day! ♥


	8. Something Borrowed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Riku receives a gift.

The train stopped near a village that bustled with people, and as soon as they arrived Lea recognized the world. He'd been here only twice, if he recalled, but both trips had been fairly pleasant, at least. (He was _so_ glad it hadn't turned out to be Atlantica.) The dirt road was lined with little shops, and rickshaws kicked up dust as they zoomed past--this had been Xigbar's haunt, more than Axel's, but it was a memorable place, to say the least.

"The Land of Dragons, huh?" he said, shoving his hands into his pockets and blowing out a low whistle as they paused near the edge of town. "So much for the utmost discretion."

"What d'you mean?" Riku asked, turning to look at him, and Lea reached over to tweak a lock of Riku's silver hair. 

"You're about forty-five years too young to have hair this color here," he said, frowning a little at the way Riku actually flinched away from the benign contact, "and me and Kairi? Yeah, forget it; red hair doesn't happen on this world. We'll stick out like sore thumbs; I had'a wear my hood up the whole time I was here or else I got all kinds of weird looks."

"Our clothes kinda stand out, too," Kairi said with a frown, scuffing the toe of her sneaker into the dirt. "Everyone here is wearing like flowy dresses and robes and stuff, and cute little flat shoes."

"Think we can find a moogle to exchange some munny?" Lea asked, shading his eyes and suddenly a little envious of the people wearing triangular straw hats. The sun was really bright here. "Maybe we can spook just one shop owner instead of the whole town."

"I didn't actually visit the town when I was here," Riku admitted, suddenly looking a little self-conscious now that attention had been brought to his hair. "I went to the palace, and through the village up the mountain, but I didn't come to this part of the world."

"Me either," Lea said, quirking his mouth to one side. Then he shrugged one shoulder. "Well, it's your call, _maestro_ ," he said, and Riku instantly looked put on the spot. "You're leading this little expedition, right?"

Riku fidgeted, like he hadn't thought of this, and then squared his shoulders.

"Yeah," he said stiffly, shading his eyes and scanning the town before looking back at Lea and then at Kairi. He hefted a sigh. "I guess we should look for a moogle. Running around here in my Black Coat wasn't a big deal, because I was just sort of hiding in the shadows anyway, but if we're meeting with Master Yen Sid's friend, we're gonna have to go to the palace."

"The palace?" Kairi's eyes lit up. "A real palace?"

"Well when he said someone who watches over this world, who else could he mean but the emperor, right?" Riku said. "I met with him last time I was here, so I think I can get us in to meet with him again. I'm just a little worried about his guards stopping us because we look weird..."

Lea had only been half-listening to Riku as he continued. He was focused instead on a young woman who was very quickly walking toward them. She had shoulder-length jet-black hair and a surprised look on her face, and Lea wasn't sure if that was something worthy of alarm. Before he could really decide one way or the other, though, the woman had closed the distance between them.

"You three must know Sora," she said, hefting the bag of groceries in her arms and looking them over with a somewhat amused smile.

Lea scratched his head, unsure what to say to that, and Riku just gave a start.

"You know Sora?" he asked, and the woman nodded eagerly.

"Yes, he's a friend of mine," she said. "Oh, goodness, where are my manners? My name is Mulan. Fa Mulan." She bowed neatly, careful to hold the groceries tightly so they didn't spill, and then straightened. "Sora visited this world a few times, he was a big help to me and to the emperor."

"How did you know we knew him?" Kairi asked, blinking curiously, and Mulan just laughed softly.

"Because you three look about as out of place as he and his friends did," she said. "With his blue eyes and strange clothes, he really didn't blend in one bit."

"'Utmost discretion'," Lea coughed into one hand, and Riku just shot him a dirty look.

"Has something happened?" Mulan asked, giving Riku a worried frown. "We haven't seen any of the creatures that were attacking the villages in a while, though I hear you can still find them occasionally up on the mountain. Your being here doesn't mean they're going to be trouble again, does it?"

"No, no, nothing like that," Riku assured her. "We're actually here to meet with the emperor, if possible."

"We represent an old friend of his," Lea chimed in when Mulan looked a little uncertain. "We were sent to ascertain the stability of the world, in the hopes of reopening safe travel between it and others."

Riku looked simultaneously grateful for the use of official verbiage and horrified that Lea had just spilled their entire mission to someone who was basically a complete stranger. Well, if she knew Sora she already knew other worlds existed, right? So there was no harm. Sometimes discretion could be a hindrance, after all. Knowing when to spill beans and when to hold them was a very important skill Riku obviously hadn't mastered just yet: he seemed completely incapable of bean-spilling.

Mulan 'hmm'ed softly, then nodded.

"Yes, I think Shang should be able to arrange for you to meet with him," she said, and then made a clicking noise with her tongue. "Boy, it's a good thing I spotted you guys, though; the guards _never_ would have let you in looking like that right off the street."

Riku was making a very uncomfortable face as Mulan jerked her chin in a gesture beckoning them to follow her.

"Come with me," she said. "You can borrow some more appropriate clothes at my house, and then Shang can take you to meet with the emperor. I'm sure it won't be a problem, if it's got to do with the safety of the whole world."

Kairi jogged after Mulan, reaching both arms out toward her. "Can I help you carry that?" she asked cheerfully, and Mulan smiled brightly, removing a loaf of bread and a melon from the bag to lighten her load a bit.

Meanwhile, Riku was still making that horrid face, and Lea just gave him a strange look.

"You look like you ate something bitter," he said quietly, arching one eyebrow. "What's your problem?"

"Shang," he said quietly, a hand near his mouth as if to make sure Mulan didn't hear him. "My problem is Shang."

"Who's Shang, anyway?" Lea shook his head. "Is he important?" He must have been, if he could get them an audience with the emperor.

"He's the captain of the emperor's guard," Riku said, his voice still hushed, "but I don't want to meet with him."

"Why not?"

"Because I beat him totally senseless once."

Mulan and Kairi both turned around to give Lea a very puzzled look when he just burst out laughing right there in the middle of the street.

* * *

"I feel ridiculous," Lea complained, frowning at the robe and sort of plucking absently at the sleeves. "Do we really have to do this? It's like wearing a dress."

"You could totally pull off wearing a dress, Lea," Kairi said candidly, adjusting the fabric of her _hanfu_ where it was folded across her chest. "You've got better hips than _I_ do."

"Look, if we're gonna get in to see the emperor we have to make it look like it's a run of the mill meeting," Riku said, smoothing the sash around his hips and then running both hands through his hair. "If a bunch of weird-looking foreigners go in there, it'll start rumors, so we have to draw as little attention as possible."

"You three are gonna turn heads no matter what you wear," Mulan's grandmother said with a sharp laugh, waving one hand and then approaching Kairi to adjust the waist of her dress. "You have eyes like lightning and hair like fire and ice; if my ancestors could see you, they wouldn't know _what_ to say!" She held up one hand and added in a stage whisper, "And that's saying a _lot_ , for most of them."

Riku flushed a little at her dramatic words, pulling at the back of his neck.

"We really appreciate the hospitality, ma'am--"

"Oh, please, call me _a màh_ , like Mulan does," she said, making a dismissive gesture with one hand. "She tells me you three are friends of the boy who helped set her up with that cute military boyfriend of hers."

" _A màh_!" Mulan stepped into the room just in time to hear this, and gave her grandmother a mortified look. "Sora had nothing to do with me and Shang!"

"Well, either way any friend of the emperor's is a friend of the Fa family, right?" Granny Fa asked with a shrug. She turned to Lea and gave him a broad smile. "We're honored to help you while you're here."

"That's very generous of you," Lea said with genuine sincerity, though he felt a little awkward about it. He wasn't really _used_ to this kind of hospitality: even just crashing in one of Riku's spare rooms had been a little strange, but this? This was a whole new level of weird. Being invited into a stranger's home and given formal clothing to borrow... this was an entirely different culture he knew very little of, and part of him was honestly a little concerned about offending someone accidentally. Sheesh, was this what Riku felt like _all_ the time? "Thanks for letting us borrow some clothes, too," he added then, fidgeting a moment with his sleeves again; "I'm sure it'll make things easier."

"And don't you three look great in those clothes, too?" Granny Fa said enthusiastically, stepping forward and tightening Riku's sash a little, which only prompted some blustering, before she swatted Lea's hands away from his sleeves and straightened them. The clothes had almost been too _short_ for Lea; he was a good head and change taller than everyone but Mulan's father, and he had at least six inches on him, at that. Thankfully the robes were sort of designed to be one size fits all, so there was extra fabric that was usually folded up and tucked in for those with less altitude. "The emperor will be so impressed to have such well-dressed guests. I knew saving my son's old formalwear would be worth it!"

"About that..." Mulan scratched her jaw awkwardly. "Shang says the emperor won't be able to see you three today..."

Riku's face fell. "Why not?" he asked, sounding disappointed.

"He's in meetings all day," Mulan said. "There's been a bit of trouble along one of our borders, so he's speaking with several of his generals about nipping the problem in the bud."

"Sounds like a good reason to put off a less pressing sort of engagement," Lea admitted, but Riku looked a little distressed about this.

"So we'll have to wait 'til tomorrow?" Kairi asked.

Mulan nodded, looking apologetic. "I'm sorry," she said. "You should be able to see him tomorrow morning, but we can't interrupt him today." She ventured a thin smile. "Would you like to stay for dinner?"

"Well, we can't just throw them _out_ after that," Granny Fa said, shooing Mulan out of the doorway. "The innkeeper's a crook, he'll charge foreigners an arm and a leg!" She tucked a stray lock of white hair behind her ear and then made a decisive gesture with one hand. "You three will stay with us tonight, and I won't take no for an answer."

And with that, she bustled out of the spare bedroom toward the kitchen, presumably to get to work on dinner. Lea met Mulan's eye and gave a short laugh.

"She's quite a character, your gran," he said and she sighed.

"She really is," she admitted. "She's right, though; the innkeeper will probably charge you extra, since you're obviously from out of town. It's probably best if you do stay here tonight. We only have one room to offer you, but..."

Lea waved a hand. "It's fine," he said. "We'll make it work. It'll just be nice to not have to worry about _camping_ or something."

Kairi looked a little disappointed about that. "I thought camping sounded fun," she admitted, and Mulan shook her head.

"Trust me," she said, "a bed is _way_ better than a sleeping bag." She smiled, taking Kairi's hands a moment. "Stay with us, won't you? And then Shang can take you to see the emperor in the morning. One evening's delay won't mess up the rest of your mission or anything, will it?"

Riku hesitated, then shook his head. "No," he said, "we have time." He bowed politely. "We... we humbly accept your invitation, Mulan. Thanks."

Mulan shook her head. "It's no trouble at all," she said, and then waved one hand. "I'm gonna go see if they need any help with dinner; Kairi, you wanna come with me?"

"I'd love to!" Kairi chirped, giving Riku an excited look before she hurried down the hall after Mulan.

Lea folded his arms and frowned at Riku.

"What is the matter with you?" he asked, shaking his head. "First the thing with Shang, and now you're being all constipated about accepting a little hospitality?"

"I am not _constipated_ ," Riku insisted, and Lea rolled his eyes.

"Well _thank you_ for clearing _that_ up."

Riku wrung his hands, looking kind of exasperated. "I just mean... I'm not trying to be all stiff about this," he said, gritting his teeth, and Lea folded his arms.

"So it comes naturally, then," he surmised.

Riku just glanced away. "Look, I'm just not used to people treating me this way," he said, and Lea made a face.

"What, _nicely_?"

" _Yes_."

Riku met his eyes at that, something desperate, pleading, and almost ashamed in them, and Lea was actually struck silent. Wait, was he serious? Lea understood, to a certain degree: the Organization hadn't exactly been Warm Fuzzies, Inc., after all, but as much as Lea didn't _expect_ hospitality from strangers, he didn't shy from it when it was offered. Riku always kind of seemed like he was preemptively bracing himself whenever someone offered him something, like he was waiting for the catch, or to be struck by the outstretched hand.

Riku smeared both hands down his face and sat down on the edge of the bed, threading and unthreading his fingers together in a way that looked almost painful.

"So I'm _sorry_ if I'm acting weird," he said a little snappishly, voice soft and eyes on the floor, "but I was hoping to get this done in a day for exactly this reason: I didn't _want_ to have to stay the night. Because I didn't want to impose on anybody."

"You do realize it's not imposing when you're openly invited, right?" Lea asked frowning. "It ain't like you twisted granny's arm."

"That isn't the point," he said.

"Then what is?"

Riku hefted a sigh, then shook his head. "Forget it," he said, "it's--"

"It _is_ important." 

Riku's eyes met his again, absolutely flabbergasted this time, like the very idea was dumbfounding.

Lea pointedly sat down on the bed beside him giving him a stern look. "You keep saying your thoughts and feelings aren't important, but they're no less important than anybody else's; got it memorized? _Sheesh_ , what's it take to get you to accept that you're at least worth the space you take up?"

Riku shook his head. "I dunno--" he started to say, and Lea waved a hand dismissively.

" _Aa_ , stop," he interrupted, giving Riku a hopeless look. "That was a rhetorical question, lunkhead."

Riku glowered at the floor, then shook his head. "Why do you care, anyway?" he asked. "I'm not gonna mess up the mission, okay? So don't worry about that."

Lea tilted his head. Why? "I'm not worried about the mission, Riku. You really think I don't give two shakes of a moogle's puff about you, don't you." It wasn't even a question. Lea blew out a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck. "Man, talking with you wears me out," he said. "Don't you get tired, being worried about everything all the time?"

Riku hesitated, then made an exasperated sort of noise. "Look, just forget it," he said, getting to his feet and heading for the doorway. "We're staying here tonight, and I'm gonna... deal with that. That good enough for you?"

"No." Lea reached down for the little knapsack he'd brought with him, sweeping it up into his lap and rummaging through it a moment. "Here," he said, pulling something out of one of the pockets and tossing it toward Riku. Riku let out a short squawk of alarm and snapped both hands out to catch it, then frowned at the object in his hands.

"What's this?" he asked, shaking his head, and Lea set the bag back down.

"It's your present, stupid," he said. "You know, the one I got you like a month ago and kept pushing back when I was gonna give it to you 'cuz you have a penchant for being a moron?"

It was a bracelet, made of woven cord, with a shark's strung tooth on it. Riku boggled at it a moment, then gave Lea a baffled look.

"You don't have to wear it," he said, getting up and heading for the doorway. "Shark teeth are supposed to keep people safe, though."

"I know _that_ ," Riku said. "I grew up on an island, remember?"

"Well, I thought maybe you could use something like that."

"What?" Riku shook his head again. "Why?"

"Because you care more about everyone else than yourself." Was Riku really this dense? Surely he had to know himself that well, right? He leaned in the door a moment, frowning at him. "I don't expect you to tell me what's going on in that tangled up head of yours," Lea said, "but I _do_ expect you to at least acknowledge that however little you think of yourself, _I_ consider you my friend as well as my teacher. And Kairi, she thinks the world of you, you know?" He reached out and poked Riku in the forehead. "So if you won't think of yourself, at least think of the people who do, and stay safe or something, you idiot."

And with that, Lea turned and walked down the hallway, leaving Riku dumbfounded. It was less important what Riku's reasons for putting himself down all the time were--he knew Riku wasn't going to tell him his whole life story, and he was okay with that--but until he could understand that he _did_ matter, and he _was_ a valued member of this team, Lea was just going to keep _telling_ him. He'd spent far too long living for validation from others to watch Riku starve for it. He'd waited far too long for Saïx to give him a single 'good job' or 'well done' when he came home from a mission to let Riku think that his efforts went unnoticed.

He saw far too much of himself in Riku's behavior to just let him suffer the way he had. Lea didn't think he was a nice guy, really, but he knew all too well the pain of feeling all alone in the world to just leave Riku to stew in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> made a small edit, because i forgot Mulan would speak Cantonese, not Mandarin. my bad; i don't actually speak either one. >.>;
> 
> there is fanart that goes with this chapter as well! please go [here](http://kawree.dreamwidth.org/447069.html) for more info on how to access it!


	9. Cherry Blossoms and Insomnia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Riku is still a terrible ninja.

  
Riku couldn't believe they were actually arguing about this.

"Look, I told you," he said, "I can sleep on the floor. It's really no big deal."

Lea crossed his arms in front of him in an X and shook his head.

"Bzzt, nope," he said. "I'm the oldest. You guys take the bed and I'll just crash on the floor over here."

"Shouldn't you be pulling rank for the _bed_ instead of the floor?" Riku asked, shaking his head. Lea really made no sense sometimes. "Kairi, back me up on this."

Kairi just shook her head, doing a little spin in the nightgown Mulan had loaned her. "You two can fight about it all you want," she said, flopping down on the bed and crossing her legs at the ankles. " _I'm_ taking the bed."

"And that's exactly why I'm _not_ ," Riku insisted, a little distressed. How was he supposed to share a bed with Kairi? That was absolutely not even fathomable! Didn't Lea realize what that _meant_? "It's completely inappropriate to share a bed with--with a student!"

That wasn't even close to the problem, but it sounded better than owning up to the fact that he'd had a crush on Kairi for years. He was pretty sure he would die or something if he shared a _bed_ with her! They weren't kids anymore.

"So it's _more_ appropriate for _me_ to share a bed with her?" Lea barked a laugh. "I'm like ten years older than she is!"

"That would be easier to believe if you acted like it," Riku said dryly. "How old _are_ you, anyway?"

"About as old as you look, what with your old-man hair," Lea retorted, and Riku bristled.

"Better than old-man bones," he shot back. "Won't you break a hip if you sleep on the floor?"

Kairi held one hand up. "Point to Riku."

"At least I'm not so old-fashioned I make a cultural _faux pas_ ," Lea said, rolling his eyes, and Kairi snapped her fingers.

"And point back to Lea."

"I'm _sorry_ I was raised to _not_ slurp my noodles," Riku insisted, tugging on the hem of his shirt uncomfortably. Really, he'd almost been too appalled to _speak_ when the suggestion had been made at the dinner table.

"It's a _compliment_ here," Lea said, waving one hand. "I thought you'd be all over that."

"You guys will argue about _anything_ , won't you? Why don't you just _both_ sleep on the floor?" Kairi suggested, sitting up and shaking her head hopelessly. "And I'll stretch out on the entire bed while you two continue acting like dummies."

Riku wasn't sure that was any better. The spare room in the Fa house wasn't very large, and he wasn't too keen on sharing immediate sleeping space with Lea, really. What if he sprawled all over him or something? He had no idea what Lea's sleeping patterns were like. Honestly, sleeping in the same _room_ was going to be a little weird, regardless of who was where. He'd done the sleepover thing with Sora and Kairi since they were little, but he was still getting to know Lea, and while he didn't _not_ trust him, he wasn't certain he trusted him enough to sleep in close proximity. Putting him up in the guest room was one thing, but having him sleeping five feet away just felt weird.

He wasn't worried about him doing anything weird to Kairi, at least--the two of them got along great. They had clicked in a way he just hadn't managed to connect with Lea yet, and... actually they ganged up on him sometimes. He guessed it was that troublemaker streak in both of them. Kairi might have been a Princess of Heart, but she was an incorrigible prankster. It really came as no surprise to him that she and Lea had that in common.

Apparently he'd been thoughtfully quiet for too long, because Lea just marched over to him and put his hands on his hips. Riku drew back with a frown, wondering what he was doing, and just made a face when Lea held one hand out, fingers closed in a fist.

"What?" he asked, and Lea gave him a serious look.

"Rock Paper Scissors," he said. "Best two out of three. Winner gets to pick where they sleep."

Well, that seemed no-nonsense and fair, even if it was a little juvenile.

"All right," he said, turning to face him fully and planting his fist against his palm. "I should warn you, though; I _always_ beat Sora at this."

"Good thing I'm not Sora," Lea said.

It was the first time in the history of ever that Riku lost all three rounds of Rock Paper Scissors. Lea had won after the second time, but Riku had insisted on going the full three rounds, just to see what happened. Lea won every single time, and Riku wasn't at all sure how to react to that. He wasn't used to _losing_. When he had thrown paper and Lea had thrown scissors on the third round, Riku had just _stared_ at Lea's hand like he didn't quite recognize it. How had this happened? He had been so sure he would win, like he _always_ won.

"Guess you and your old-man hair get the bed," Lea said with a grin, and Riku felt heat rise to his cheeks.

How was he going to do this? He hadn't planned for what to do if he _didn't win_.

"Come on, Riku, it'll be like old times," Kairi said, giving him a bright smile, her elbows propped on her knees and her chin in her hands. "Remember? You and me and Sora used to all pile on the floor of his room, 'cuz all three of us wouldn't _fit_ on the bed but nobody wanted to sleep alone."

Yes, his face was definitely pink now.

"R... right," he said stiffly, "like old times."

Kairi tossed an extra pillow toward Lea, who caught it in one hand and dropped it onto the floor. Then he promptly sprawled out with one knee drawn up and his hands threaded together behind his head.

"Here," Kairi said, pulling one of the blankets off the bed and tossing that toward him as well. "It's prolly gonna be cold on the floor, will you be okay?"

"I'll be fine," he said, but accepted the blanket anyway. "You two behave up there," he said, and it was all Riku could do to not make a sharp keening noise in rebuttal. This was exactly what he'd wanted to avoid: innuendo. The fact of the matter was, he _did_ have feelings for Kairi, and he had for a long time, and sharing sleeping space with her had grown increasingly difficult as he'd become aware of that fact. Suddenly the innocent slumber parties felt awkward and uncomfortable, and something in Riku had just wanted to _beg_ some higher power to take the feelings away so he could just go back to having a good time with his two best friends.

When the lights were turned out, Riku slid as far to the edge of the bed as he could manage without falling off, the sheet pulled up to his chin and his back coiled tightly. This felt so wrong, and he couldn't even figure out _why_. After about fifteen minutes, he heard Kairi's breathing even out and soften as she slipped into sleep, and he turned to glance at her in the shadows of the bedroom. A lock of her auburn hair had slipped out of place and fallen across her forehead, and Riku reached out as if to tuck it back where it belonged... and then he recoiled.

He wasn't supposed to have feelings for her. He was just supposed to _protect_ her, and feelings made that complicated. This had been so much easier back when they were young, when it hadn't mattered that she was pretty because he hadn't really known the difference. He was her teacher, and he was supposed to make sure she was safe at all times, and the strange squirmy feelings in his heart made that desire to keep her safe feel like cheating. Did he want to keep her safe so he could keep her all to himself? That was so selfish!

Riku rolled over and put his back to Kairi, one hand tucked beneath his head and his chest barely an inch from the edge of the mattress.

He didn't want these feelings. He didn't want to feel like their relationship was tainted with something weird like that. She was his best friend, and it was his job to keep her safe. That was _all_.

Right?

Right.

He wasn't going to get _any_ sleep tonight.

* * *

About two hours later, Riku hadn't slept a wink. He'd been staring at the little round window across the room, just listening to Kairi breathe, his spine rigid and his jaw clenched. This posture was really making his shoulders ache, but he couldn't bring himself to relax. His eyes flicked from the window to the floor, though, when he heard Lea move. There was a whisper of cloth as the blanket was left behind, and he heard the older man's footsteps pad quietly out of the room.

What was he up to? Riku didn't think Lea was the sort to go snooping through someone else's house in the dead of night, but the truth was he just wasn't sure. He couldn't allow that sort of behavior from one of his students, it would cast a poor light on Keyblade wielders everywhere! Sitting up, he threw the blanket aside and got to his feet, determined to make sure Lea wasn't doing anything unacceptable while they were guests of the Fa family.

He crept down the darkened hallway, past the other bedrooms, his feet bare and footsteps silent as he moved. He didn't see Lea in the main room of the house, though. Where had he gone? Had he stolen into someone's bedroom? No, he definitely didn't think Lea was that sort of person.

Noticing the sliding door that led into the backyard was slightly ajar, Riku moved toward the little veranda and quietly slid the door open to look outside. He was satisfied, at least, that Lea wasn't rifling through the family's china or something, but Riku felt he had to finish what he'd started. What Lea was doing outside in the middle of the night (and with no shoes or anything) was beyond him, but now he was just too curious to leave it alone.

Riku lingered in the doorway a moment, just peering out into the open yard. The moon was nearly full and shone silver through the flowering cherry trees, illuminating the whole area almost as brightly as the hour before sunrise. He and Lea had both opted to sleep in the clothes they'd been wearing when they arrived in town, rather than borrow pajamas from somebody, and now Lea stood in a gap between two trees, looking ridiculously out of place in the landscape. Riku squinted, then carefully slipped out into the night and closed the door behind him, moving silently across the grass and ducking behind a tree. He swatted at the flower petals that fell softly like snow from above, and then turned to peer carefully around the trunk. Riku watched as Lea took a deep breath and appeared to concentrate a moment before thrusting his arm out abruptly. His Keyblade appeared in his hand, in time with a big grin splitting his face.

"There you are," he said quietly. "See, that wasn't so hard, was it? 'Bout time you really started listening to me."

Riku wasn't sure if he was proud of Lea for practicing in his downtime, or crippled with secondhand embarrassment because Lea was _talking_ to his Keyblade. 

He decided it was both.

Lea shifted and held the blade out in front of him, then turned sharply and brought it down in a wide arc. Riku just watched in awe. Was he really doing forms? He hadn't even been sure that Lea _remembered_ them, for all he goofed off during training. As he watched, his jaw slid more and more ajar as Lea moved flawlessly through each and every strike, twisting the blade in the moonlight with almost too-practiced precision. He had hit every mark--even his grip was correct! Riku just stood there with his mouth hanging open in shock.

That was when he sneezed. It snuck up on him almost too suddenly, and he barely had time to pinch his nose to stifle it. Ugh, these stupid cherry blossoms--they were _everywhere_. Had he made too much noise? Riku sniffed and rubbed his nose furiously, still watching as Lea broke stance and rolled his shoulders back. He rested the weapon against his shoulder then, turning, and Riku quickly ducked behind the tree again, pressing his back against it. Shoot, had he seen him?

"I know you're there, Riku."

Rats.

Riku hesitated, then sighed and stepped out into view, folding his arms defensively as Lea gave him a long-suffering look, one eyebrow arched and his hip popped almost impatiently.

"Couldn't sleep again, huh?"

"How long did you know I was there?" he asked, and Lea rolled his eyes.

"I told you," he said: "despite your old-man hair, you're a hundred years too early to sneak up on me." He waved a hand toward the house. "I knew as soon as you followed me outside."

Riku looked surprised. "And you did the forms anyway?"

"Yeah, well, you're the one who said I should be aware of my surroundings without letting them distract me," he said, pressing his lips together. " _Gesundheit_ , by the way."

Riku looked _more_ surprised. He _had_ said that, hadn't he? In one of their early lessons. He was so surprised, in fact, that he barely bothered to acknowledge that he had no idea what _Gesundheit_ even meant. He was still startled that Lea had remembered those sword forms correctly, but now he was _quoting_ him, too? This was too much. No _way_ Lea was actually this dedicated a student.

"Whaddaya look so thunderstruck for?" Lea asked, dismissing his Keyblade and folding his arms then. "You think I'm a slacker, I know you do; I pay a lot more attention than anybody thinks. I'm just a good actor."

"I noticed," Riku said, scrubbing at his nose with the heel of his hand. "Okay, I admit, I'm surprised. I _did_ think you were a slacker, but you've proven me wrong." He shook his head. "If you know them all, though, then how come I still beat you every time we spar?"

Lea looked sheepish then, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Knowing the forms when I'm by myself is one thing," he said, "but it's a little harder to get 'em right when there's somebody trying to smack me upside the head with their _own_ weapon." He shrugged one shoulder. "That's why I just keep practicing them when nobody's around: I keep hoping it'll just become muscle memory, like with my chakrams. I don't even have to think about it when I fight with them, you know? They're like an extension of my own arms."

Riku understood that very well: he'd been practicing with swords since he was very small. He and Sora had sparred with wooden ones nearly every day when they'd been kids together, so wielding the Keyblade hadn't been a difficult transition for him. He'd been frustrated with Lea a few times, when he had flubbed a block or missed an easy strike--he had thought that since Lea was a seasoned combatant, he should have had an easy time of it. He hadn't really taken into account that a blade was an entirely different sort of weapon than the ones Lea was used to.

He started to apologize, then turned away sharply and sneezed again instead, ducking his head. Three sneezes later, he saw Lea tilt his head in something like puzzled worry.

"Easy, sneezy," he said, frowning. "Boy, somebody's got a lot to say about you, don't they? You wanna go back inside? We can't really take you to the emperor if you've got a cold, you know."

"It's not a cold," Riku said stiffly, a little embarrassed as he sniffed again. "I've got pollen allergies. When all the plants on the beach are in bloom back home in the springtime it's really bad."

And here it came: Lea was going to make fun of him now, right? What kind of Keyblade Master was so easily felled by seasonal allergies, right?

When the laughter didn't come, though, Riku gave Lea an uncertain look.

"Huh," was all Lea said, and Riku made a face.

"What?" he said. "That's it? Not gonna laugh at me?" He _knew_ he was going to laugh, maybe he was just waiting for the right moment. If he called him out first, then maybe it wouldn't matter as much when the inevitable laughter at his expense came anyway.

"No, why would I laugh?" he asked, shaking his head. "Put me in a dusty old room and I do the same thing. I'm just kinda surprised."

"What? Why surprised?" This was not at all the reaction he'd been expecting.

Lea leaned against the nearest tree, crossing his ankles and rubbing his chin with one hand.

"You and Sora just seem kinda... invincible sometimes," he said, and that was perhaps the most surprising revelation of the evening. Him, invincible? He _wished_. Lea smiled faintly. "I mean you guys beat all the odds, you know? You've come out on top every time--you even beat Xehanort's Heartless when he took control of your body. So it's just kinda funny that you've got such a mundane weakness."

"You said you wouldn't laugh." Riku sniffed again, frowning.

"I'm not," Lea insisted, shaking his head. "I think I've just got a little clearer image of you now, is all."

"Clearer image?" What did that even mean? He wasn't out of focus.

"Never mind," Lea said, waving a hand. "I just feel like maybe I'm finally getting to know you." He pushed away from the tree and moved forward, passing Riku on his way back toward the house. "You keep stuff pretty close to the vest, so I have to pay attention or I might miss something."

Riku blustered before following him back toward the house. Pay attention? Since when did _anyone_ pay attention to him?

"I don't know what you're talking about," he insisted, jogging to catch up.

Lea just pulled the outside door open and lingered in the ingress a moment, his eyes catching the moonlight and almost seeming to reflect like a cat's.

"Of course not," he said with a grin, before ducking inside and waiting for Riku to follow. "Come on, it's late," he said. "I know you weren't sleeping; we're both gonna be zombies meeting the emperor tomorrow at this rate."

"I'll be fine," Riku said, waving one hand. "You should try and get some sleep, though."

Lea gave him a funny look. "You do know teenagers need like way more sleep than adults, right?" he asked. "So don't 'I'll be fine' me. What's eating you tonight?"

Rats again. Riku just couldn't seem to win with Lea. He had learned how to function on not much sleep, but he had a feeling it _showed_ when Lea was looking at him, and he wasn't sure how to handle it. Sometimes he felt like Lea could see right through him, and he had no contingencies for that.

"It's nothing," he said, and Lea snorted.

"Right." He paused in the hallway, their voices hushed in the quiet of the sleeping house. "Fine, you want the floor? You can take the floor."

Riku lifted his eyebrows in surprise. "What? You won Rock Paper Scissors fair and square, why are you giving in all of a sudden?"

"'Cuz I get it," he said, moving past him to head down the hallway. He turned to give Riku a knowing grin then. "It's weird trying to sleep next to somebody you like," he said, and then continued down the corridor.

Riku was sure he'd gone red from the tips of his toes to the top of his head. How did Lea know that? Had he been paying _that_ much attention? That was _impossible_ , he hadn't told _anyone_ how he felt about Kairi! The closest he'd ever gotten was challenging Sora to that race, saying that whoever won could share a paopu with her, and he'd known that Sora wouldn't make the connection. So how had Lea, who had known him for barely any time at all, figured it out so _easily_?

He wasn't sure how long he stood there by the door, completely flabbergasted and stunned into silence. Lea just kept surprising him, and he had a feeling it wasn't going to let up anytime soon. By the time he snapped out of his stupor and padded sheepishly back into the spare bedroom, Lea had relocated to the bed, leaving the spot on the floor vacant for Riku. He wasn't quite sure what to do with this unexpected generous streak Lea seemed to have... first the bracelet, now this? He had just thought Lea was a sassy know-it-all who liked to make a flashy entrance, he hadn't really counted on him being such a decent person.

When morning arrived and Mulan came to inform them that Shang would be waiting for them at the front gate in an hour, Kairi had been puzzled by the change in sleeping arrangements. Riku had balked, terrified for a moment that Lea would spill the beans, but Lea had just casually assured her that the floor had been too hard and hurt his back, so Riku had volunteered to switch with him. Why had he done that? No one had ever _lied_ for him before.

A little voice in the back of his head had whispered something about blackmail, but Riku didn't want to believe that. As Kairi swept up her _hanfu_ and hustled to the bathroom to change, Riku watched as Lea just put his pillow over his face and stayed in bed for a few extra minutes.

"Hey, um... thanks," he said softly, awkwardly, gathering up the clothes he'd been loaned and hesitating in the doorway. "For not saying anything. About... you know. About Kairi."

Lea just lifted an arm, giving Riku a thumbs up, his face still buried beneath the pillow, and Riku shook his head and smiled. He wasn't sure he would ever figure Lea out, but he was learning to like the challenge.


	10. An Imperial Affair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a mission is finally accomplished.

Kairi had never met an emperor before. Really, she'd never met anyone more important than the mayor of Destiny Islands (who didn't count, because he was her _dad_ ), except for King Mickey (whom she'd only ever met in passing, for that matter). She supposed Yen Sid was pretty important, actually, but he definitely wasn't a king or an emperor or anything. She was a little nervous about this meeting, and it probably showed, because Lea kept putting his fingers over her hands when she started fidgeting with them.

"Quit it," he chided quietly. "You don't have to be so worried. The emperor's a powerful guy, but he ain't really _scary_." He made a gesture with both hands, pantomiming a mustache. "His beard is like as long as Merlin's, you can't be afraid of that."

"Did you ever meet him?" Kairi asked, her eyes wide, and Lea pressed his lips together.

"Not face to face," he said. "I saw him once, but Xigbar was the one who spent more time on this world."

She crinkled her nose. "Which one was Xigbar?" she asked.

He gestured at one eye. "Eye patch, ponytail."

Her nose remained crinkled. "I didn't like him," she said, and Lea chuckled.

"Yeah, I don't really like him much either," he said, rolling his shoulders backward uncomfortably. "Was he a creep when you were in the castle?" he asked. "'Cuz he's already on my list of Jerks to Punch in the Face, so if there are infractions I need to add, to personalize his punch in the face, you need to let me know."

Kairi giggled, then shook her head. "No, he didn't do anything to me," she said. "He was just... creepy. And the one with the silver hair and the bad tan was creepy, too."

"That's Xemnas," he said, his lip curling. "He was in charge of the Organization. He's _definitely_ on the list."

"Is there a _reason_ you're giving Kairi a crash course in Who's Who in Organization XIII?" Riku asked, leaning over to chime in, and Lea pulled awkwardly at the back of his neck.

"Hey, she asked," he said; "it was relevant." He made a bit of a face then. "Actually now I'm kind of wondering what we _call_ Xemnas, to be honest. We all got our names back when we got our hearts back, but... 'Ansem' was never his name in the first place."

"I don't think that's really something we should worry about, Lea," Riku said, pinching the bridge of his nose in that way he did when someone was being a little too ridiculous.

"I'll go with Buttface for now," Lea said decisively. "It's a work in progress."

Kairi snorted a laugh, covering her mouth with one hand. "You could just call him Names. Like literally."

She could see the gears in Lea's head turning, and when the anagram clicked, he joined her in laughter. Riku swatted at both of them.

"Would you guys please be serious for a minute?" he asked, looking a little flustered. "We're about to meet with the most important person on this world; I don't want the two of you just giggling through the whole thing."

"I do not _giggle_ ," Lea insisted, unable to keep a straight face, and Riku just sighed heavily.

"Riku, relax a little," Kairi said, taking his arm. "I'm nervous too, but something tells me the emperor isn't going to bite, you know?"

"I'm not _nervous_ ," Riku insisted, and Kairi knew he was lying. Something was really bothering him about this meeting, but she couldn't determine what. Riku was serious by nature and stoic by default, but he'd been wringing his hands, his fingers closed in tight fists, and he usually only did that when he was very perturbed about something. "I just want this to go smoothly," he said. "I don't want to have to impose on the Fa family another night; I want this to be easy and over with."

Before she could ask what he was so worried would go _wrong_ , the gilded door to the emperor's chambers opened, and a tall, broad-shouldered man emerged. He was young, clean shaven, and as he looked each of them over, Kairi was certain Riku was going to faint dead away. The man's eyes narrowed a bit, and then he stepped fully out into the hall, letting the door close quietly behind him.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting," he said. "I'm Li Shang, captain of the imperial army and a personal bodyguard to the emperor. We don't usually allow civilians audience with the emperor directly, but Mulan tells me you three are here on behalf of Yen Sid." He lifted his chin a little. "That isn't a name I know, but the emperor assured me it was important, so the exception is being made."

"We appreciate the leniency," Lea said, fidgeting a little in his borrowed clothes. "It's important we talk to the emperor about this directly."

Kairi's eyes flicked from Lea to Shang and then to Riku, who was avoiding eye contact with the captain at all costs. She glanced back at Lea again as Shang turned to open the door for them. He was so perceptive, she had noticed; she had known Riku for years and knew how he got around strangers, especially those with clout. Lea only had a couple months' experience with the way Riku acted, and yet he seemed to pick up on his particular quirks easily, speaking up when Riku found himself unable. It was really interesting to her--she tended to notice things before other people as well, and the idea that this perceptiveness of hers wasn't _strange_ was comforting. Sora and Riku were kind of oblivious when it came to little cues, she'd discovered, and so watching Lea hone in on those things the way she did was fascinating.

Lea nudged Riku with one elbow. "You're gonna make him suspicious if you keep avoiding eye contact," he said quietly, and Riku stiffened visibly.

"I do that with _everyone_ ," he said, and Lea frowned.

"One does not preclude the other," he said, and Riku just shook his head.

"What does that even mean, Webster?" he asked, sounding exasperated.

Lea folded his arms.

"It means you better make eye contact with the emperor when you're talking to him, because avoiding it is really suspicious, even if you do it to _everybody_ ," he said sternly. "Besides, it's rude."

There it was: she knew Lea made a good point, but saying something was _rude_ was the sticking point for Riku. He wasn't worried about looking suspicious so much as he concerned himself with propriety. Being rude to an emperor--more than that, a friend of Yen Sid's--was completely unacceptable in Riku's book. Kairi found herself surprised all over again that Lea had read that book so quickly, so easily.

Shang held the door open for them, and the trio stepped through the grand doorway and into the throne room. The room was enormous--Kairi was sure she could have fit like two of her whole house in here--with long golden carpets that led from one end of the room to the other. At the far side from the door, there was a staircase that went up about two-thirds of a story, and at the top was a huge, comfortable looking chair on a platform, flanked by heron statues. In the chair was a man, elderly and distinguished, with a long beard and mustache and dressed in a flowing yellow robe.

Kairi noted absently that his beard was not _quite_ as long as Merlin's.

Following Shang down the carpeted walkway, Kairi stole a furtive glance at Riku and Lea. Riku's jaw was set so tightly she could practically hear his teeth grinding, and he was walking stiff-legged, almost like he was trying to stand at attention while still moving forward. Lea, meanwhile, looked completely unfazed by all of the grandeur; the clothes he wore lacked pockets or she was confident that was where his hands would have been as he ambled casually behind Shang, his eyes scanning the huge room.

She felt somewhere between the two of them, and not just because she was walking in the middle. She wasn't quite so uptight as Riku was, because she knew that they weren't in trouble and they were here for a good reason, but she wasn't nearly so laid back as Lea was about this. After all, this was still _the emperor_ they were meeting, and that alone was cause for one's best behavior at the very least.

Shang took to a knee and lowered his head. "Your Excellency," he said, and then gestured behind him to the trio.

Kairi looked up at the emperor and then quickly bowed her head, unsure if she was supposed to kneel like Shang was. She stole a glance at Riku, who had also bowed his head, his arms tight against his sides, and decided that bowing was probably okay. Even eternally irreverent Lea had dipped his head.

"So you three are the ambassadors from my old friend Yen Sid," the emperor said, getting to his feet. Slowly making his way down the stairs, he regarded each of them for a long moment. "What is the news you bear?"

Riku cleared his throat awkwardly, then straightened where he stood, shoulders thrown back and chin lifted a little.

"Ah... sir, we've come to ask about the safety of this world," he said stiffly.

"Is that safety in jeopardy?" the emperor asked, and Riku fidgeted.

"No, sir," he said, and then shook his head. "I mean... I don't know. Master Yen Sid asked us to come here to make sure the world was secure."

Lea held up one hand, like he was asking permission to interject, and then gave Riku a sidelong glance.

"Yen Sid wants to open up a safe path between the world where he lives, and this one," Lea said, turning his gaze back to the emperor, "but we can't do that if it could possibly be compromised. We're just here to make sure the Heartless are under control and that you feel comfortable connecting this world with others again."

"I see," the emperor said, and Riku deflated a little, though Kairi wasn't sure if it was in relief or embarrassment. Knowing Riku, it was probably a little of both. The emperor tilted his head a little, then tugged briefly at his beard. "And just who are you three, anyway?"

Riku straightened again, looking a little more serious again now. "I'm Master Riku," he said, and then gestured beside him. "These are my students, Kairi, and Lea."

"If Yen Sid has sent a Keyblade Master on this errand, then it must be very important indeed," the emperor said, standing in front of Kairi now, only two steps above them. "I have only heard of a few straggling Heartless being seen on the summit of the mountain," he said, "but those accounts are not recent. Since Sora sealed the heart of this world, however, the Heartless have caused us no trouble here."

"That's wonderful news," Kairi said, and then clapped both hands over her mouth. Wait, was she even allowed to talk? ... Wait, of course she was allowed to talk-- _Lea_ had talked! Oh, why hadn't she said something _useful_ instead?

"Do not censor your happiness, child," the emperor said kindly. "It _is_ wonderful news, that this world is no longer plagued by the perils of the Heartless. Thanks to your colleague Sora, this world has been safe for quite some time now." 

Kairi nodded. "Sora's pretty great, huh?" she asked, a little shyly, and the emperor smiled.

"It is a great service he has done to the worlds," he said, "and a service I trust the three of you will continue to uphold, as a master and students of the Keyblade." 

Kairi straightened her spine a little. "O-of course, sir," she said, doing her best to look serious. "We'll do our best!"

The emperor turned to Riku then, nodding slowly. "I will allow this world to be connected," he said, "so long as those who would travel between it remember that discretion is paramount until such time as all worlds can be reconnected and their people joined once more."

"Yes, Your Excellency," Riku said with a nod, and Kairi noted that he seemed to have taken Lea's advice to heart: he held the emperor's eye for a moment, then bowed his head again. "Thank you. I'm sure Yen Sid will be very pleased to hear your decision."

"Do give him my regards," the emperor said, and then started to climb the stairs back to his throne.

Riku cast a furtive glance at Shang, then turned quickly to head for the doorway that led back to the corridor. He seemed very eager to get out of that room, and Kairi wasn't quite sure why, but she followed him, and glanced over her shoulder to make sure Lea followed _her_.

"Oh, and... Master Riku?"

Riku paused in his steps when the emperor called his name, and he turned to look back at him. Kairi and Lea turned as well, and the emperor gave Riku a knowing look.

"I appreciate your not beating anyone up this time," was all he said, and Riku looked instantly mortified, his face turning several shades of scarlet. He hunched his shoulders and swiftly fled the throne room, shoving through the doors that led to the hallway beyond.

Kairi heard Lea start laughing with abandon, but she didn't understand. Who had Riku beaten up?

"Riku? Riku, what's he talking about?" she asked, following him into the corridor. "Riku, what happened the last time you were _here_?"

Riku just covered his face with one hand and shook his head as Lea pulled the door closed behind him, laughing so hard he doubled forward and leaned against the wall.

"Forget it, let's just get back to the train," Riku said, "before Captain Shang puts two and two together."

Kairi had a feeling that this was a story that came with a lot of explanation.


	11. Pockets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we'll always have Paris.

"So we're _not_ going to see the king?" Kairi tucked her hair behind her ear, a little confused. "Shouldn't the king be the leader of the world, though?"

"You'd think," Lea said, leaning back against the seat of the train and folding his arms over his chest.

Riku just shook his head. "There's apparently a King Louis XI on the throne of France right now," he said, "but Yen Sid says he doesn't actually know about the existence of other worlds."

Kairi wriggled in her seat. "I can't believe we're going to _Paris_ ," she said. "It sounds so glamorous, you know?" She had gone through a few of Yen Sid's books, just reading about some of the worlds she might get to visit, and Paris had sounded so romantic! She turned to Lea then. "Have you been?"

Lea shook his head. "Nope, never made it to Paris," he said. "Hear the food's to die for, though."

"Well, I'd prefer we don't do any dying while we're on our mission," Riku said, moving to the front of the train car as it began to slow. "We'll be dropped off near the edge of the city," he said, "and we're headed to the cathedral, near the center. I'm sure it won't be hard to find our way."

"You've been here, right, Riku?" Kairi asked. "You said you had met with a Romani woman named Esmeralda in Paris."

"Oho, hanging around with gypsies? You delinquent," Lea snorted, and Riku gave him a stern glower.

"The word is _Romani_ ," he said sharply. "Don't call them gypsies, that's a really rude word."

"The term you're looking for is _pejorative_ ," Lea said facetiously, and Riku scowled. 

"Whatever it is, they're the Romani people and they deserve respect like anybody else."

"Is it so bad?" Kairi asked, shaking her head. "I'd never even heard the word until you mentioned Esmeralda."

"I didn't know what the Romani were either, until Esmeralda," Riku said, clenching one hand into a fist, "but she told me her people were hunted down just for being who they are. So I read about them some, the last time I visited Beast's Castle."

"That's another world set in the same place at a different time, right?" Kairi had lost track of all the worlds Sora and Riku had been to, but it was interesting to her that some of them overlapped locations.

"The castle isn't in _Paris_ , but it's still in France, which is the larger area Paris is part of," Riku said, his words a little halting like he wasn't entirely sure of what he was saying. "It's a different timeline, but they have common history, um..." He shook his head. "I don't really understand it all, Yen Sid could probably explain it better. Anyway, 'gypsy' just isn't a nice word, okay? Don't use it."

He seemed really adamant about this, and Kairi nodded. "Okay, I won't."

"Just keep your wallet in your front pocket," Lea said through clenched teeth.

"I _wish_ these shorts had pockets," she complained, frowning at him. "Why don't girl clothes have decent pockets?"

"Search me," he said, lacing his fingers together behind his head. "I don't design 'em."

"Have you met a Romani before?" Kairi asked, tilting her head curiously.

"Not personally," he said, scratching his cheek, "but I've read enough to know they make a living swindling other people."

"You can't believe _everything_ you read," Kairi said, and Lea didn't look convinced. Kairi nudged his shoe with her foot. "Be nice," she scolded; "you know how important this is."

_Especially to Riku,_ her eyes concluded sternly, silently.

Lea pulled at the back of his neck. "Yeah, yeah, I know."

"We're almost there," Riku said, giving Lea a chastising look before sitting back down across the aisle of the train. "Let's hope this mission goes a little more smoothly than the last one, okay?"

"Unless you beat up a bunch of people here, too, we should be fine," Lea said, and Riku just rolled his eyes at him.

The train pulled up on the outskirts of a busy looking city with grand architecture and hurried streets. As the tracks shimmered away, Lea shoved his hands into his pockets and cast his eyes around the buildings nearby.

"So we're headed to a cathedral?" he asked, giving Riku a curious look. 

"Yeah," he said. "Notre Dame Cathedral; it's one of the most famous structures in Paris. We should be able to see it up ahead."

"I don't think I've ever seen a cathedral before," Kairi said. "Who is it we're supposed to be talking to, if not the king?"

"The archdeacon," Riku replied, and Lea arched one eyebrow.

"The heck's an archdeacon?" he asked, and Kairi had to admit she was a bit curious as well.

"A high member of the cleric," Riku said, lifting his hands to shoulder and head height as if to demonstrate the various levels. "He works for the diocese and answers directly to the bishop."

There was a beat of silence and then Lea waved one hand. "Yeah, I have no idea what that means," he said, and Kairi laughed.

"Riku knows a lot about the church," she said by way of explanation. "His father is friends with the local minister, right?"

Riku nodded, hooking his thumbs in his belt loops. "Yeah, they kept pushing me to be in the church choir," he said, looking a little uncomfortable.

"And that's why he knows every Christmas song ever," she concluded, and Lea snorted a laugh.

"You're making it sound like I'm the only one who sings around here," Riku said, grinning sidelong at her. "I couldn't even _hear_ Selphie last Christmas, you were singing so loud."

She looked a little embarrassed, fidgeting with the hem of her shorts. "Well, they needed an alto," she hedged. She _liked_ to sing! There was nothing wrong with singing loud, right?

"Kairi, you had a sore throat for two days after that," Riku chuckled, and Kairi puffed her cheeks out a little.

"You two will have to put on a concert sometime," Lea snorted, shaking his head.

"Not likely," Riku said, and Kairi laughed.

"What's your favorite Christmas carol, Lea?" she asked, and Lea shook his head.

"I actually dunno any," he admitted.

"None?"

"We didn't celebrate Christmas where I grew up," he explained. "We had a winter festival called Yule, but none'a this Sandy Claws stuff I learned about in Christmastown."

Kairi looked a little sad. Christmas was probably her favorite holiday, she really loved everything about it. She loved the smell of apple cider and cinnamon, the warmth of fireplaces and friends gathered around a decorated tree. It never got cold enough to _snow_ on the Destiny Islands, but she'd heard about Christmastown from Riku, and the way the rain fell soft and white like powder from above. She wanted to see snow so badly. Had Lea really grown up without Christmas?

Lea folded his arms and harrumphed at the look on her face.

"You don't have to make a face like that," he said. "We had cool festivals too, okay? Solstice and Yule and Summerfinding... It's not like I had some sad boring childhood."

"I have a hard time imagining anything about you being sad or boring, to be honest," Riku snickered. 

They rounded a corner, and Kairi's eyes widened in awe. In the distance, over the steep gabled rooftops of the shops and houses in the square, the towers of the great cathedral rose away from the earth, dwarfing everything around them. The sun glinted off the massive rose window in the center and reflected fiery white, catching the angles of the bell towers and casting sharp shadows across the town beyond the massive structure. Kairi actually paused in her steps to stare, her jaw sliding ajar. She had never seen anything so beautiful in her entire life. There was a little church in the square on the islands, with a round stained glass window and a decorative steeple, but she was sure ten of them would have fit inside the great cathedral.

"Wow," she breathed, and Riku stepped up beside her.

"Pretty impressive, isn't it?" he asked.

Lea let out a low whistle. "I'll say," he said, hands in his pockets again. "I had no idea how massive it was."

"That's where we're going?" Kairi asked.

Riku nodded. "Yeah," he said. "The archdeacon is a busy person, but I'm sure he'll make time to talk about this."

"Funny the way busy people make time when the fate of the world is at stake, huh?" Lea quipped, and then made an _oof_ noise when someone bumped into him roughly.

Kairi caught his arm. "Are you okay?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder to try and see who'd hit him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, dusting himself off and tossing a dirty look toward the faceless figure that moved away from him. "This place is really hopping today; there's people _everywhere_."

"It's a big world," Riku said, "and a lot more densely populated than the last one." He glanced at Lea and then gave Kairi a stern look. "Stay on your guard," he said. "Things should be pretty peaceful, but don't get careless."

"Sir, yes sir," she said, saluting him playfully. Really, Riku always seemed to take things a little too seriously. What did he expect was going to happen?

" _Aa_!" Lea let out a sudden squawk of alarm, and Kairi turned to frown at him worriedly.

"What?" she and Riku asked in tandem, and Lea slapped his palms against the pockets at his hips.

"Whoever bumped into me stole my damn _wallet_!" he said shrilly. "Are you freaking _kidding_ me--I was being _careful_ , too!"

"Seriously?" Riku asked, looking baffled. "You got your pocket picked?"

Kairi was torn between being upset that Lea had lost his wallet and amused at the irony of it, considering he'd been warning her about just that.

"Dammit, now I have to go get it back," he said with a snarl, and turned to head off in the direction the crowd was moving.

"Lea-- _wait_ , we shouldn't get separated!" Riku shouted, reaching out to grab for his arm, and Lea deftly evaded his grasp.

"No way I'm just giving up my munny without a fight," he said.

"It's no big deal, Lea, it's just _munny_ \--"

"It's fine, I'll meet you guys back at the cathedral at dusk," he said. "Cross my heart!"

"Lea, no, _wait_ a seco-- Ugh." Riku palmed his face as Lea disappeared into the bustling crowd, and then looked down at Kairi. "He's never going to listen to me, is he?"

"I wouldn't bet on it."

"Well, I guess it's just you and me, then."

"Should we still go to the cathedral?" she asked, blinking curiously. "I don't think we should talk to the archdeacon _without_ him..."

Riku shook his head. "No, I think he should be there too," he said; "it's important for you guys to see how relations between worlds work. The only experience he really has with inter-world stuff was with the Organization."

"Not exactly fine upstanding behavior," she giggled, and Riku grinned.

"Not at all," he agreed.

"Well, what do we do 'til he gets back?" she asked, figuring he would find _something_ constructive for them to do. It wasn't that Riku wasn't a fun person to be around, but he wasn't very good at wasting time.

"Wanna check out the market?" he asked, and Kairi did a doubletake.

"Wait, what?" she asked. "Are you being serious?"

"Yes, I'm being serious," he said, giving her a strange look. "If we can't get our mission done until sunset, we might as well take in some sights, right?"

Who was this person and what had they done with Riku?

"Are you feeling okay?" she asked, reaching up to touch his forehead, and he laughed, catching her wrist and pulling her hand down.

"Kairi, I'm fine," he said.

"You were just so uptight on the previous mission," she said, a little bewildered. 

Riku looked a little shamefaced. "I felt like I was really out of my element there," he said honestly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'd only ever been there when I was shadowing the Organization-- _Sora's_ the hero of that world, you know?"

Understanding bloomed in her eyes and she nodded. "But you came here and helped the people of this world during your exam," she said, rationalizing it. That made sense; he felt more welcome here, like less of an imposition. She had to figure that _not_ having to spend the night at someone's house didn't hurt, either. Riku seemed to gauge his worth based on how much he had done for the people in his immediate vicinity, and for some reason he never seemed to think it was _enough_.

"The people of this world helped me, too," he said, a wistful sort of smile on his face.

Kairi studied his expression a moment, wishing she knew what he was thinking. Sometimes it was easy to tell, and other times she couldn't quite read him. Smiles were rare on his face, though, so even if she couldn't tell what was on his mind, she would take the smile for what it was. "I think I like this Riku better than the one from the last mission," she said with a grin. "I figured you'd be sentencing me to training with the city guard until Lea got back."

Riku folded his arms and gave her a very stern look. "Well do you _want_ to do training exercises with the city guard?" he asked. "I'm sure if we asked they would do it."

She shook her head quickly.

"Heck no, I wanna go shopping!" she said, her arms tight against her sides. Then she pointed across the walkway. "Look at those beautiful scarves over there. And there, those hats are so cute! Riku, is it really okay?" Her eyes were wide and hopeful. It was all right to do a _little_ sightseeing on a mission, right? She had waited so long to get to visit other worlds!

He lifted his chin in something like permission, and Kairi let out a little squeak of delight. Grabbing Riku's hands, she turned to pull him toward the nearest line of sales carts--

" _Oomf_!"

\--and promptly crashed into someone.

"Oh gosh, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" she gasped, looking up into the face of a beautiful woman with dark hair and startling green eyes. "Are you okay? I wasn't watching where I was going."

"I'm fine, little one," the woman said, smiling. "Did you hurt yourse-- Well I'll be. Riku, is that you?"

The woman's eyes flicked past Kairi, and she glanced at him to gauge his reaction. Did he know this woman? When his face lit up with recognition, she stepped aside to let him approach her.

"Esmeralda, I wasn't sure we would run into you!" he said, and Kairi brought both hands to her face.

So this was Esmeralda? She was more beautiful than she'd even imagined, wearing flowing layers of skirts with bells and tassels on them, her mane of jet black hair held back with a silken scarf.

"It's been a while, are you well?" she asked, taking Riku's hands and then turning her eyes back to Kairi. "And who's this lovely lady? She wasn't with you last time."

"This is Kairi, one of my closest friends," he said, and Kairi blushed a little as Riku gestured between them. "Kairi, meet Esmeralda. She was a big help to me when I was last here."

"Oh, nonsense," Esmeralda said, shaking her head. "Riku's the hero in this group."

"I couldn't agree more," Kairi said brightly, and then laughed as Riku's face turned pink at the compliment.

"Well it's very nice to meet you, Kairi," Esmeralda said. "Any friend of Riku's is a friend of mine."

"L-likewise!" Kairi said, bowing stiffly and then giving Esmeralda a big smile. "Thank you for helping him when he was here!"

"Can we change the subject now?" Riku asked, looking a little embarrassed.

"What brings you to Paris?" Esmeralda asked, carefully leading the way through the crowd to a sheltered area beside one of the carts so they could speak without blocking the foot traffic.

"We need to speak with the archdeacon," Kairi said, and Esmeralda nodded.

"Are you headed to the cathedral, then?"

"Not just yet," Riku said; "we lost one of our party members."

Esmeralda frowned, her brow furrowed. "Did something happen?"

"He got his pocket picked and went to get his wallet back," Kairi said, rolling her eyes, and Esmeralda pursed her lips.

"Oh, no, that sounds like Luca," she said. "He's a lousy salesman, and he's not even very good at cards, so he usually makes ends meet by stealing." She shook her head hopelessly. "He's really not helping our image. You two don't dress like most people in the square, he probably took you for being from out of town and figured it'd be an easy meal ticket."

"Is he dangerous?" Riku asked, suddenly looking a little concerned, but Esmeralda shook her head.

"No, he's harmless," she assured him, "but your friend might have a hard time catching him. He's pretty good at disappearing."

"So is Lea," Kairi said, and Riku just nodded in agreement.

"He'll probably be fine," Riku said, waving one hand. "So long as this Luca character isn't going to hurt him, I'm not too worried. Lea can take care of himself."

"Luca's about as dangerous as a pigeon," Esmeralda said, and Kairi laughed. Esmeralda's green eyes lit up cheerfully. "If you two are going to be in the city for a while, why don't you come to the square with me?" she asked. "Some friends and I are putting on a little show for the vendors, hoping to draw in some customers." She grinned impishly. "Would you like to learn a Roma dance?"

" _Would_ I?" Kairi gasped, grabbing Riku's hand. "Can we, Riku?"

"I-I'm not dancing!" Riku said quickly, pulling at the back of his neck, and then gave a sigh. "But... I guess we can go watch. If you want to dance, Kairi, that's fine."

She bounced where she stood, squeezing Riku's hand and beaming at Esmeralda.

"Yes, I would _love_ to learn a dance," she said, eagerly following her as they headed back out into the crowd. 

Whatever Riku had done here during his exam, it had really left its mark on him; she hadn't seen him this happy and sure of himself in a while, and it was really refreshing. She knew Riku took everything too hard, too personal, and she _knew_ it made things hard for him. One mistake could ruin everything, the way he saw it, so she was determined to make sure that there were zero mistakes on these missions. That didn't mean there had to be zero fun, though, right? As she followed Esmeralda through the sea of people in the square, still clutching Riku's hand, she glanced back at him and smiled broadly, her heart swelling with joy when the expression was returned.

She could only hope this was the beginning of a long string of confident smiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks so much for all the hits on this fic! ♥ it really makes me so happy that people are enjoying it. this fic is seriously like a zillion times bigger than i ever expected it would be, and i love that you guys are along for the ride. please don't ever hesitate to leave a comment, either--i would love to know what you think. is there a world you'd really like to see them go to? i have the next handful of chapters planned already, but there's wiggle room later on!
> 
> as always a million thanks to Saree for her invaluable help and beta'ing! you rock, Saree, this fic would not be what it is without you~ ♥


	12. Tunnel Vision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our heroes become tombraiders.

Lea kind of felt like an idiot, and despite the fact that he usually had no qualms about looking a bit foolish if it meant cheering somebody up, he really hated looking _dumb_. This gypsy--er... Romani, whatever--had really made him look downright stupid, in front of two of the only people whose opinions he genuinely gave a damn about, and he wasn't too happy about it. Really, _imagine_ , him getting his pocket picked in broad daylight! He was already trying to come up with a proportionate punishment for this guy, but so far he had to think that facial burns probably would have earned him a scolding from Riku. (What a party-pooper.)

It was no easy task to follow the man through the crowd in the middle of the square in Paris. Lea had plenty of experience tailing people, but he had a feeling this guy had some experience _being_ tailed, because he moved through the crowd like water, doubling back and clearly trying to shake off anyone that might have been trying to follow him. Well, Lea wasn't going to be so easily gotten rid of. He managed to stick to the Romani man, waiting for the right moment to try and confront him, but a moment didn't come. He couldn't just attack him in the middle of the square, after all--he would probably play the victim card if that happened, and while Lea wasn't sure the public would side with a Romani, he had to figure they'd be _less_ inclined to side with an out-of-towner.

After about twenty minutes of rigmarole, it seemed the man was finally convinced he wasn't being followed anymore and headed away from the crowd, and Lea knew this was his chance. Oh, how he wished he had any talent with Slow or Stop spells, it was always entertaining to watch someone who had fallen prey to Time magicks. He continued to follow as the Romani headed east, away from the square and the cathedral, until they arrived at a large wrought-iron gate that led into a cemetery. Lea hesitated, frowning. He wasn't really the superstitious type, but somehow chasing someone through a graveyard felt like a bad idea.

He wasn't just going to let that guy have his munny, though! With a growl, Lea followed him into the cemetery, shaking his head. Well, everyone in a graveyard was already _dead_ , right? He _probably_ wouldn't run into any trouble.

(Who was he kidding? Lea had a _penchant_ for running into trouble.)

He ducked behind a large headstone to see where the Romani went. This place was a little creepy; it was far too quiet and way too still. Granted, he guessed quiet and still were preferable to the alternatives, given it was a _cemetery_. He really wasn't in the mood for zombies. The grounds were old and a bit unkempt, some of the headstones were broken or toppling sideways, and he frowned at the name etched into the marker he was hiding behind. _Jehan le Cler_ , it read, _14 September 1465 - 18 December 1481_. Lea made a face and pulled away from the headstone. The person buried there had died when they were sixteen. _Sixteen_... that was far too young. That was how old he'd been when he'd lost his heart. Suddenly he felt like he had way too much in common with this Jehan person buried beneath him. Ugh, wasn't it bad luck to tread on people's graves anyway? Perfect, now he was going to be haunted on top of broke.

Watching as the Romani man glanced over his shoulder and then vanished into the open tomb in front of a small mausoleum, Lea shuddered. Okay, he wasn't really sure if getting his wallet back was worth going into an open grave. He couldn't deny his curiosity, though. Where had the man _gone_? Where did the tomb lead? Surely he hadn't just jumped into a six-foot hole in the ground, that wouldn't have made any sense. There had to be something down there, a tunnel, perhaps. Curiouser and curiouser...

He crept out from behind the gravestone and approached the open tomb hesitantly, his steps light like he was worried the ground might collapse under his feet. Craning his neck, Lea tried to peer up and over the ledge of the tomb without getting too close. There were stairs beyond the lip of the tomb, stairs that went steeply downward and into a black obscurity. He could faintly hear what sounded like water dripping from somewhere below, slow and rhythmic. What was down there, beyond what he could see? What was at the bottom of those stairs? Lea stepped half an inch closer, reaching out to steady himself on the ledge, and--

"Drop something?"

" _Uwaugh--!_ "

Lea let out a shrill yelp and staggered sideways when a voice piped up from behind him, and he turned sharply with a glare when Kairi burst out laughing.

"Hey, wow, that was _not_ funny," he said, jabbing a finger at her as Riku folded his arms and gave Lea a self-satisfied look.

"What happened to 'a hundred years too early to sneak up on me'?" he asked with a grin, and Lea harrumphed.

"I was _preoccupied_ ," he snarled, and Riku didn't really look convinced as he hid laughter behind one hand.

Kairi, meanwhile, was holding her sides. "You went white as a sheet," she guffawed. "I wish you could have seen your face!"

"Har har, you guys are a riot," Lea grumbled, rolling his eyes. Actually, he was a little surprised himself; he _had_ been kind of preoccupied, but usually when he was spooked he was _more_ on-edge. Why hadn't their presence been obvious to him? Had he really gotten so comfortable around them already? He raked a hand back through his hair and hefted a sigh, then put his hands on his hips. "What are you doing here, anyway?" he asked. "I thought we were going to meet at the cathedral later."

"That was _your_ idea," Riku said, arching one eyebrow.

"We saw you running in circles in the square after we met up with someone Riku knows here," Kairi said, one hand still on her side and the other wiping a tear of laughter away from one eye. "So we followed you."

"We thought maybe you could use a hand getting your wallet back," Riku said, grinning again, and Lea fought the urge to make a very rude gesture with a particular finger.

"I was fine," he insisted, folding his arms and looking unimpressed. "I was just following the guy and he came here," he said, gesturing to the open tomb. "I was debating the merits of going after him, is all."

"You were _scared_ ," Kairi snickered, giggling again, and Lea advanced toward her, making a swatting motion. She squealed and ducked behind Riku, still laughing. "Lea, it's a _graveyard_ , it's supposed to be scary," she said. "There's no shame in being afraid to go into an open crypt, okay?"

"Then why are you laughing at me?" he asked, glowering when Riku saw fit to laugh as well. His ears went a little red at that. Now he felt _extra_ stupid.

"Your reaction is what's funny," Riku said, shaking his head and stepping forward to approach the tomb. "You're so animated, it's like watching TV." He leaned over the ledge to peer down the stone stairs that led downward and quickly faded to inky black.

Lea exhaled audibly, then moved up beside him, staring down as well.

"What do you think?" he asked, giving Riku a sidelong look. The truth was, he really didn't want to go down there alone. Maybe Kairi was a _little_ right, maybe he was a _little_ freaked out by this place. Lea liked ghost stories and horror movies, but mostly because what he'd been through was that much worse than anything a filmmaker could dream up; he wasn't so sure about living one _on purpose_.

"I think this is an awful lot of trouble for a wallet," Riku said, then lifted his chin a little to indicate the inscription over the tomb. "There's something written there," he said, and Lea squinted at it.

"Well, don't look at me," he said. "The only stuff I can say in French isn't anything to be said on hallowed ground."

"I think it's Latin, actually," Kairi said, stepping up alongside him, and Lea quirked his mouth to one side.

"I can't even _swear_ in Latin, so I got nothin'."

Kairi paused for a moment, and then took Lea's arm, using it for leverage as she clambered up onto the ledge. "I wanna see what's down there," she said, standing on the top step, and both men blinked at her.

"Are you serious?" Lea asked. Weren't girls supposed to be afraid of ghosts?

"'Course I'm serious," she said, hands on her hips again. "I think we've come this far, so we might as well see it through, you know? Aren't you even the least bit curious?"

"Kinda," Lea said at the same time Riku said, "Not really." They glanced at each other, then back up at Kairi.

"Come on, it can't hurt to take a look," she said, and blithely headed down the steps.

"Kairi-- _wait_!" Riku reached after her to grab her wrist, but wasn't quite fast enough to catch her before she disappeared into the shadows. "Great, why doesn't anybody ever listen to me?" he muttered, and then looked at Lea. "I guess she made the decision for us."

Lea grimaced, but dutifully hoisted himself up and over the ledge. "I'm pretty sure I've seen this movie," he said with a shake of his head.

"Don't tell me how it ends," Riku said, hopping up after him and following Kairi down into the darkness below them, "I don't think I want to know."

Lea headed down after him, calling a tongue of flame to one hand as they descended the stairs.

"Kairi, wait up," Riku called, dragging his fingers across the wall and then recoiling sharply with a noise of disgust, wringing his hand. Lea decided he did _not_ want to investigate what was growing on the walls.

As they continued downward, a light appeared from below, and Lea could make out Kairi's silhouette at the base of the stairs.

"There's water," she said, frowning, but he was more interested in the rest of their surroundings.

The ceiling was high--about two and a half times the height of any normal ceiling, and there were torches along the walls. There were also piles of bones along the walls. Piles _and piles_ of bones. There must have been at least a hundred skulls in each pile, stacked up against the thick stone walls beneath the torches, along the length of the room, and Lea had a sudden very distinct sinking feeling about this entire undertaking. He raised one hand.

"All in favor of going back to the surface?" he asked, and Riku started to raise his hand as well before Kairi snatched it.

"Don't be such a 'fraidycat," she scolded. "They're just bones."

"Bones that used to belong to somebody," Riku pointed out. "You know, like a _body_?"

"Yeah, how do you think they _got_ here?" Lea asked dryly. Kairi met his eye and gave him a look. Lea held her gaze a moment, then decided that obviously someone was going to have to make a move here, and it might as well have been him. This had all been his idea in the first place, and he really needed to get better about seeing things through, didn't he? Very well. He shrugged and moved past her, stepping into the ankle-deep water. "Fine, but if we die it's all your fault," he said, making a face. Eugh, wet shoes. 

Riku made a noise that was somewhere between a groan and a whine of protest. "Could we maybe _not_?" he asked, and Lea glanced over his shoulder as he trudged through the water.

"Ohh no," he said, "I'm invested in this now, I got my _shoes_ wet. You guys are coming if I have to drag you; come on, it ain't deep."

"Depth isn't what I'm _worried_ about," Riku said, making a face as he stepped into the water after Lea. Kairi followed, making a similar face, and Lea was starting to wish he'd worn his boots for this mission. They slogged through the dirty water toward an opening in a side wall, and Lea was grateful when he saw that the water didn't cover the next section of the tunnel.

"It goes back up," he said, stepping out of the water and shaking his feet rather like a cat might: one at a time, trying to get the water out of his shoes. "This room's dry."

"Thank goodness," Kairi said, still making that face as she followed Lea and stepped to one side, picking her feet up as if to drip-dry her shoes. "If the whole going down into a tomb thing wasn't enough of a deterrent, that gross water sure would be."

"And yet here we are," Riku said, stepping up out of the water after her.

"Yes, here you are." 

All three of them tensed instantly, spines going rigid as a fourth voice echoed in the semidarkness. Where had it come from? Lea whirled in time to see the Romani man step out of the shadows to their left. He snatched Kairi by the arm and yanked her backward, and she yelped in alarm as he pulled her close and covered her mouth with one hand.

"Shh, shh, do not make noise, little girl," he crooned at her, "or you will wake the dead!"

"Let her go," Riku said, stepping forward, and the Romani man stepped backward in kind, taking Kairi with him.

"Ah ah," he said, shaking his head, "stay where you are, _mon frère_ , we wouldn't want anyone to get hurt."

Riku summoned his Keyblade, dropping into an offensive stance as it shimmered into view. "No, we wouldn't," he said dangerously, and Lea reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. His courage was admirable, but offense wasn't the way to handle a hostage situation--he was only going to make things worse if he riled the Romani man up.

"Easy, Riku, let's everybody just take it easy, okay?" He held both hands up then, as if in surrender, and Kairi gave him a desperate look, struggling against the man's grip. She had been the bravest of them only a moment ago, willing to face all the things they hadn't been able to see, but suddenly she looked so much smaller. Lea grit his teeth. This was _not_ how he had wanted this excursion to go.

"Why are you following me?" the Romani man demanded, his dark eyes narrow as they flicked from Lea to Riku and back. "You've been after me since the square, haven't you?"

"Dude, you stole my _wallet_ ," Lea snapped. "I just wanted it back."

There was a beat of silence, and then the man just threw his head back and laughed, tossing his stringy black hair. "All of this, for a wallet?" he snorted. "You are truly foolish, my good sir, and now you have dragged your friends into your trouble as well."

"Actually, they came on their own," he said with a grain of exasperation, and Riku made a frustrated noise at him, Keyblade still drawn.

There was a protracted instant of tense silence, and then Riku's shoulders lifted as he took a breath. "Look, your name is Luca, right?" Riku said, lowering his weapon a bit and giving the Romani a severe stare. 

The man looked a little wary suddenly, lifting his chin. "How do you know this?" he asked, and Riku squared his posture.

"You've got a pretty big reputation in the city," he said. Lea arched one eyebrow--this was news to him. How did Riku know who this guy was?

"Reputation?"

"As a man of honor among thieves," Riku said, and Luca squinted, then smiled a bit. Lea suddenly realized what was happening: Riku was _baiting_ him. He wasn't sure how the hell Riku knew this guy's name, but he was _definitely_ stroking his ego, which was a classic subterfuge move. And here he hadn't thought Riku had it in him to be so underhanded. "We aren't here to give you trouble, Luca. We don't want a fight. How about we settle this with a game?" he asked. "Romani are good at games, right?"

"We are the best," Luca assured him, and Riku nodded. 

"You can choose what we play, and if you win, you can keep the wallet and we'll just leave, no questions asked. If we win, you give it back, and we'll still leave, no questions asked." He gestured to Kairi, then dismissed his Keyblade and showed Luca his empty hands. "Just let her go, and we can settle this like civilized people, okay?" He shook his head. "You have no use for a hostage."

Luca hesitated, then furrowed his brow. He seemed to think for a long, quiet moment, and then a thin smile crossed his features. With a flourish, he released Kairi from his grip.

"Very well," he said. "The girl is yours."

Kairi staggered forward, stumbled, then caught herself and darted to Riku's side. Riku caught her hand in one of his and then held Luca's eye as the dark-haired man shifted his weight where he stood.

"And our game?" he asked.

Luca stepped to his right and turned a large crate on its side, then produced a trio of steel cups from seemingly out of nowhere. Lea's eyes narrowed; if this guy knew sleight of hand then they might have been in some trouble. He knew the sorts of games a street performer like this guy excelled at, and prestidigitation was surely par for the course. At this point he was less worried about his wallet and more worried about just _getting out of here_ , but Riku didn't seem rattled. He had to figure the younger man had a plan of some sort--he usually did. He was pragmatic that way. Luca set the cups down on top of the crate, open side down, and rested his palms atop the two outer cups.

"For the wallet, then," he said, grinning toothily, "we will play cups." He rolled his wrist and held up what looked like a white marble. "You understand how the game is played, do you not?"

"I have to guess which cup the ball is under, right?" Riku asked, giving Kairi's hand a squeeze and then stepping forward. "I accept your challenge."

Kairi lingered behind as he moved toward Luca, then glanced at Lea and moved to his side instead. Lea touched her shoulder, cursing that penchant of his for finding trouble. Getting himself in hot water was one thing, but he'd never meant to get Kairi and Riku involved, even if they'd followed of their own volition.

"You okay?" he asked, and she nodded hurriedly. He squeezed her shoulder, then turned narrow eyes back to Riku. None of this had gone the way he'd planned, but something told him that Riku knew what he was doing. "It'll be all right," he said quietly as Kairi pressed herself against his side. After all, if there was anyone who knew how to beat someone at their own game, it was Riku.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for almost a thousand hits! i love you guys!


	13. Sleight of Hand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which you lost the game.

  
Riku was not a gambler, not by a long shot. In fact, the only reason he even knew how the game of cups _worked_ was because he'd seen a Romani woman playing it the last time he had been in Paris. It had seemed simple enough: all you had to do was pay attention and you really couldn't lose, right? He wasn't worried at all. There was a look on Lea's face that said _he_ was, but Riku wasn't going to let that shake his confidence. Not here.

The last mission had been something of a disaster, in his opinion; he had fumbled speaking to Mulan, to her grandmother, and even fumbled with the emperor. They had had to impose upon the Fa family, and he hadn't done a single thing for that world to deserve such hospitality--it had just been a great big mess. He was supposed to be a _Master_ , he was representing Keyblade wielders everywhere, representing Light itself, and he'd just looked like a big idiot. Lea had even had to answer questions for him a couple of times, and while he appreciated the assistance when his tongue had been tied, what kind of Master needed his student to speak up for him?

Here, though, he knew that his efforts had been beneficial, not only for Esmeralda and Quasimodo, but for the world as a whole as well. Here Riku could be confident. He would win this game, he would get Lea's wallet back, and they would get out of here in one piece so they could go see the archdeacon and complete their mission.

Piece of cake.

"Are you ready to play our game?" Luca asked, his hands held over the three cups on the overturned box.

Riku glanced at Lea and Kairi. 

"It's not like the wallet's even a big deal," Lea said, mostly under his breath, folding his arms where he stood and looking a little put off. Riku grinned a bit, shaking his head. The wallet was the whole reason they were here in the first place. If Lea was embarrassed because Riku was sticking up for him this way, that was his prerogative, but Riku wasn't going to forgo this game just because Lea was bad at accepting a favor. He looked back at Luca and nodded.

"I'm ready," he said, and Luca grinned.

"Then let's begin," he said. "We will play three rounds--you will only have one chance to make a mistake, so be very careful, _mon frère_."

Without hesitation, he lifted one of the cups and dropped the little white ball beneath it, and then proceeded to move the cups lightly across the surface of the box.

Round and round and round the cups went, and Riku followed the one with the ball beneath it easily. This wasn't going to be difficult at all; Luca wasn't even moving the cups terribly quickly. Was he as bad at cups as Esmeralda had indicated he was at cards? If that was the case, this wasn't going to be difficult at all. Something in the back of his mind told him it wasn't going to be that easy, but for the moment he was feeling pretty assured of himself.

The cups came to a stop, and Luca pulled his hands back, giving Riku an expectant look. Riku held his gaze for a long moment, then narrowed his eyes a little.

"It's under the cup on your left," he said.

Luca's grin was predatory.

"So sorry, my friend," he said, "but I'm afraid you've used up your one mistake already!"

Riku's eyebrows crinkled together when Luca lifted the indicated cup only to reveal empty space beneath it, and his lips parted in dismay. That was impossible! Riku was _certain_ he had followed the ball perfectly--how could he have been wrong?

"Uh… Riku?" Lea's voice cut through the thick, startled silence in the air and Riku turned to glance at him. "Look, forget about the wallet, let's just go."

There was something in his voice that said there was more to the request than impatience, and Riku frowned. He turned back to Luca then and started to shake his head. If Lea was ready to give the wallet up then there was no real reason to press for it, especially not if there was something else at work.

"You still have two tries left," Luca said, smiling thinly, "so do not be discouraged just yet. Are you ready to go again?"

Something just wasn't right here. Riku could accept having lost Rock Paper Scissors with Lea; that game was mostly just plain luck. This, however, was a game of observation, and while Riku didn't always manage to focus on the little details of a larger situation, when he paid deliberate attention it was difficult to put one over on him. How could he have been wrong? He pressed a knuckle against his chin.

"Hang in there, Riku," Kairi piped up from behind, and Riku gave a start, snapping out of his trance of musing. He glanced back at her and nodded, frowning at the worry written into her face. Lea shook his head again, and Riku felt a stab of uneasiness poke at his insides.

He turned back to Luca and started to back out. This just felt really wrong and he couldn't quite put his finger on why, but Luca held up one hand quickly.

"You cannot just give up," Luca said. "That's not how the game works."

Riku grit his teeth. "Fine. Then I'm ready," he said, setting his jaw, determined not to make a second mistake.

Luca lifted the cup in the middle, pulling the ball out from under it and holding it up for Riku to see before placing it beneath the cup again.

"Do not take your eyes off the cup, my friend," he said, waving his hands above the trio of cups and then taking hold of the base of two of them. He wove them around and around one another, as if trying to braid the air between them, but Riku kept a sharp eye on the cup with the ball beneath it. This time he was _sure_ he would get it right.

Luca's hands came to a stop, and he stepped back, folding his arms over his chest.

"So," he said, that predatory smile on his face again, "where is the ball this time?"

Riku hesitated. It was under the middle cup, he was _sure_ of it, he had followed the ball so carefully this time! He chanced a glance back at Riku and Kairi, frowning a little. Kairi still looked worried, like she was a little concerned that if he lost again the Romani man would try and take her away as a prize. Riku would never have let that happen, of course, but he wondered if Luca would dare to try such a thing. He noted Lea's hand on Kairi's shoulder and met the redhead's eye briefly. Lea was shaking his head again, ever so slightly, and Riku just couldn't shake that uneasy feeling. Lea was usually the most easygoing of the three of them, and the stern uncomfortable look on his face was unsettling. What wasn't he saying, and why wasn't he saying it?

He turned back to Luca.

"It's under the middle cup," he said, his lips pulled into a grim, stern frown.

"Are you sure about that, _mon frère_?" Luca asked, holding one hand over the middle cup. "Choose carefully, you don't get another mistake."

Had he made another mistake? No, he was sure the ball was under the middle cup. Luca was just trying to psych him out, to make him second-guess his own observations. He _wanted_ him to change his choice, because he was _right_.

… Right?

"I'm sure," he said, squaring his shoulders. "It's the middle cup."

Luca just grinned and shook his head.

"I am so sorry, my friend," he said, lifting the cup, "but you are wrong again."

The space beneath the cup was empty. It was _empty_? How could that be? Riku was _certain_ he had followed the cup with the ball beneath it at every turn!

"That can't be right," he said, shaking his head, and Luca clicked his tongue.

"It's sad but true," the Romani said, standing the cup right side up and giving Riku a notably patronizing look. "You can see with your own eyes that the ball is not there." He folded his arms again. "It looks like your friend's wallet belongs to me now," he said, and Riku clenched his teeth.

"Riku, just forget it," Lea called from behind him. "It isn't worth it. Let's _go_."

Riku just shook his head, a little distressed. This wasn't even really about the wallet anymore. Certainly getting Lea's wallet back would have been nice, but he was less worried about Lea's munny and more concerned that they were being _cheated_ , and that was something he really couldn't abide. Could he really have been wrong? One mistake he could accept easily, but not two in a row, not when it was such a simple game. Was that what Lea had been trying to get across? Would Luca really cheat to win nothing more than a wallet?

Impulsively (and perhaps against his better judgment), Riku flicked one hand, casting a weak Aero spell and flipping the cups onto their sides. Luca let out a sharp yelp, scrambling to replace them, but it was too late. Riku had seen the truth of his 'mistakes': all three cups were empty. The ball hadn't been beneath _any_ of them.

"You cheated!" Riku shook his head, not even quite able to believe what he was seeing. He had wanted to be wrong, wanted to believe that Luca was just very good at what he did. Maybe he'd simply been mistaking what Luca was _good_ at; that sleight of hand he'd used earlier had only been a preview of what he was really capable of, it seemed. "You didn't even put the ball down--I would have been right both times, wouldn't I?"

Maybe he should have known better than to trust him. Trusting people always seemed to get him into trouble. Didn't it just figure?

Luca drew back with a venomous look on his face, his jaw working soundlessly as he fumbled for a retort, but he couldn't find any. He'd been caught in his own lie, and Riku wasn't going to let him get away with it. He held out one hand.

"Give the wallet back," he said boldly. "I didn't lose the game--you didn't play fairly."

Luca's lips twisted into a dangerous sort of smile.

"I will tell you a secret, _mon frère_ ," he said, and something twinged worriedly in Riku's gut. "Though you were correct when you guessed which cup the ball was beneath, you _did_ make one terrible mistake."

Riku withdrew his hand and frowned.

"What's that?" he asked, and whirled when he heard Kairi cry out. The space was suddenly filled with a dozen or more Romani men that had formed a semicircle around her and Lea.

"You expected a Romani to play fair," Luca said, and Riku felt his heart sink. The game hadn't been an attempt to give Riku a shot at winning the wallet back at all! It had been a diversion to make time for an ambush! _That_ was what Lea had been trying to say! No wonder he hadn't spoken up; if Luca had known they were onto him, they would have attacked anyway. Luca had forbidden him to give up so the Romani would have time to gather.

"Kairi--"

"Do not move, my friend," Luca said, snapping his fingers, "unless you want your friends to lose their heads." He snickered darkly. "A reputation of honor among thieves... as if such a thing were true."

Riku watched in horror as the armed Romani men that surrounded his companions held their blades up; a saber here, a dagger there. Lea reached out and put an arm up in front of Kairi, but didn't conjure his weapons. Riku had to suppose that was probably the smarter choice, but it was all he could do to not call his Keyblade to his hand.

"What is it you want?" he asked, turning back to Luca. "Forget about the wallet, just let them go."

"Are you so convinced that this is about money?" Luca asked with a derisive snort. "The wallet will buy me dinner, of course, but I cannot let you and your friends leave this place."

"All this because we stepped in your stupid muddy water?" Lea demanded incredulously, and Luca tossed his head, sweeping his hair off his brow.

"The Court of Miracles is a well-kept secret," he said. "If the people of Paris knew of this place, we Romani would be wiped out!"

"It's a tunnel under a conspicuously open tomb," Lea sneered; "that's not a secret, it's practically an invitation."

The Romani around them took a step closer, and Kairi shrank back against Lea, her eyes fierce though her face was drawn in fear. 

Luca lifted his chin, scowling. "I cannot just let you go when you know precisely where to find us."

"We've got nobody to _tell_ ," Riku insisted, his heart and head both racing as he struggled to think of a way to get out of this. He couldn't believe he'd been so foolish--he should have put his foot down about coming down here in the first place! "We aren't even from Paris," he said, "we don't know anyone in the city except--"

"I will hear none of your excuses," Luca said sharply, waving one hand in the air. "Tie them up--we'll hang them in the main square!"

"Yeah, I don't think so," Lea said, snapping both hands out, his chakrams coming faithfully to his call. "We've got a schedule to keep, and _hanging_ around ain't on it."

Really? Lea had time to make _puns_?

Riku followed suit, making good use of the instant Luca's guard faltered when Lea's weapons appeared in his hands. The Romani may have been experienced at cheating, but they had apparently never seen a weapon summoned out of empty space before. Drawing Way to the Dawn from the air, he twisted sharply and leveled the blade at Luca's neck.

"Tell your friends to lower their weapons," he snarled, "or you'll be the one losing your head."

Luca put both hands up slowly, dropping the little white ball to the ground, where it rolled over the uneven stones and came to a stop beside Riku's foot. Riku kicked it aside spitefully, then moved his Keyblade just enough to let Luca know he meant business. He would never have actually relieved the man of his head, but _Luca_ didn't know that. Luca swallowed visibly, then waggled his fingers in the air.

"Put your blades down, you fools," he called; "are you trying to get me killed?"

The ring of Romani around Lea and Kairi stepped back, weapons at their sides, but Lea kept his chakrams drawn. Kairi looked shaken, and Riku scowled. Luca wouldn't lose his head for this, but Riku wasn't going to let him off easy, not after threatening Kairi.

"You will never leave this place alive," Luca hissed, his voice low, and Riku's eyes narrowed poisonously.

"I'm not the one with a sword at their throat," he said, and Luca grimaced.

Quiet stretched between them for a long moment as the Romani kept their weapons at their sides but held their ground not far from where Lea and Kairi still stood. In the protracted silence, Riku could hear the sound of water moving from the next room, and he tightened his jaw. If that was more reinforcements, they might have been in trouble.

A sharp gasp punctuated the air.

"Luca, just what in the world is going _on_ down here?"

Riku recognized Esmeralda's voice before he saw her step into the raised room, her skirts hiked up to keep them out of the filthy water on the floor of the catacombs. There was a look of shock on her face, which quickly shifted to something like long-suffering apology as she met Riku's eye. He wasn't sure if he felt relieved or betrayed in that moment--had Esmeralda been in on this? No, that wasn't possible.

"Esmeralda!" Luca's face broke into a grin. "Thank goodness you're here! These three trespassers--"

"Are friends of mine, you fool," she interrupted, dropping the hem of her skirt and stepping up alongside him to cuff him on the back of the head. "All of you, put your weapons away, there's no need to fight here. Riku and his friends are no threat to us."

Riku hesitated for a breathless moment. He trusted Esmeralda, he didn't think she would trick him into dismissing his weapon only to finish what Luca had started, but for that heavy instant he wasn't certain. He had trusted Luca to play fairly, and look where that had landed them. What if he lowered his Keyblade only to seal Kairi and Lea's fate? He had already made a dangerous mistake even coming down here, and he wasn't about to make another.

Esmeralda reached up and gently placed her hands on the edge of the Keyblade.

"Riku, it's all right," she said quietly, meeting his eye and giving him a nod. "You can trust me."

"They are friends of yours?" Luca asked, and then shot Riku a dirty look. "Why didn't you just say so?"

"I _tried_!" Riku insisted.

Esmeralda reached out and snatched Luca by the ear. He yowled in pain and Riku stumbled backward as Esmeralda cast a fierce glower toward the rest of the Romani men that were gathered in the tunnel. 

"Would anyone else care to be taught a lesson?" she asked. "Drop your weapons and leave these people alone."

There was a clatter as every single one of the still-armed Romani promptly dropped their swords to the ground. Lea lowered his chakrams but didn't send them away until he fixed Riku with an unsteady sort of look, like he was asking permission. Riku nodded--it was safe, now; he could trust Esmeralda at her word, and she clearly had the rest of the Romani's respect--and the chakrams vanished in a whirl of smoke. 

Riku heaved a sigh and dismissed his Keyblade, hurrying to Kairi's side and reaching out as if to take her arm. His hand stopped just shy of touching her, but she closed the distance for him, throwing her arms around his neck. He was sure he flushed bright red, but he wrapped his arms around her back anyway.

"I'm sorry!" she whispered into his shoulder. "I didn't know what to do! I wanted to draw my Keyblade too, but I couldn't do it--I couldn't draw my weapon on actual _people_."

"It's all right," he said, realizing then that the only reason he'd been able to do just that was because Kairi had been in danger. Riku didn't think he would have ever been able to really hurt someone he didn't know for a fact was evil, but when Luca had threatened Kairi and Lea it had just been reflexive. It was the sworn duty of a Keyblade Master to defend the people of all the worlds, but when those people endangered his students, his _friends_ , that duty took a back seat.

Was that allowed? He hadn't even _thought_ about it, he'd just drawn his blade on Luca, whose only crimes had been cheating and not listening. Well, and theft. Still, they were hardly crimes punishable by death or injury!

"Are you three all right?" Esmeralda asked, having released Luca's ear. She put a hand on Kairi's shoulder as she pulled back from the hug, her eyes bright with worry. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea Luca would do something like this." She shook her head. "By himself he's completely harmless; I never suspected he would lead you here."

"What _is_ this place, anyway?" Lea asked, rubbing the back of his neck and looking kind of tired suddenly. "Admittedly, most people wouldn't just jump right into an open tomb, but you guys really oughtta put up a Do Not Enter sign or something, sheesh."

"This tunnel leads to the Court of Miracles," she said. "It's our safe haven from the persecution we face on the streets of Paris. No one but Romani can come here without express permission."

"Might wanna think about having an invite list or something," Lea grumbled, and Riku gave him a flat look. He was getting the feeling Lea hid behind sarcasm as a screen--there had been genuine worry scrawled brightly across his face when he and Kairi had been surrounded. He was pretty good at playing it off, but the fear had been there, in the way his jaw had clenched when he'd put his arm up to defend Kairi.

Lea had drawn his weapons first--maybe it wasn't so bad to prioritize one's own important people. Part of him wanted to ask what Lea's thoughts on the subject were, while the rest of him wondered if it was strange for a teacher to ask their student about something like that. Why wasn't there a rulebook or something?

Riku turned and cast Luca a severe look. It was funny to him that this man who had been prepared to drag them off to be hanged only a moment ago now seemed to quail under scrutiny. Esmeralda really did have a lot of clout, didn't she? Sometimes he had to think that it wasn't mere happenstance that led him to the people he met; sometimes Riku felt like there _were_ no coincidences. Maybe this trail had already been laid out for him, this path between light and dark, and each fork in the road was marked by a meaningful bond. How far off-track might he have found himself if he hadn't taken the path Kairi's friendship represented? Or Lea's?

Speaking of Lea... He lifted his chin and narrowed his eyes at Luca.

"I think you have something that doesn't belong to you," he said, and Luca curled his lip.

"I have many things that do not belong to me," he said stiffly; "it is the Romani way." And then he grimaced when Riku held his hand out expectantly. "Fine, fine," he huffed, reaching into his tunic and pulling out a black wallet with a rather goofy-looking image of a cartoon flame on it. "There wasn't very much in it anyway, I should have known it wouldn't be worth the trouble."

"Are you saying I look _cheap_?" Lea demanded as Riku snatched the wallet out of Luca's hand.

Luca examined his fingernails.

"I am saying that I should have taken the wallet of someone who was better dressed."

Lea fisted his hands and glowered. "Dude, you wanna go? Keep talking," he snarled, and Riku just stepped between them, laughing softly as he thrust the wallet forward and planted it against Lea's chest.

"Take your wallet and stop arguing," he said, shaking his head. "It all turned out okay, right?"

Lea shoved his wallet back into his pocket with a harrumph, then gave Riku a look that balanced along the edge of apology.

"Sorry I dragged you guys into this," he said, averting his eyes and looking uncomfortable.

Kairi shook her head and nudged him with her hip.

"You already said before that we came all on our own," she reminded him with a smile. "You can't take that back now."

He frowned at her, looking oddly lost for retort, and Riku waved a hand.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "The important thing is that nobody got hurt."

Lea folded his arms. "My _pride_ is a little bruised," he said.

"Put some ice on it and you'll be fine," Riku said with a roll of his eyes before turning his attention to Esmeralda. "Thank you for your help," he said, ignoring Lea's mocking mimic of his previous words. "We'll keep this place a secret, for sure."

"I know you will," Esmeralda said with a nod. She reached into a pouch at her hip and retrieved what looked like a small round green stone. Pressing it into Riku's hand, she closed his fingers over it. "If you ever find yourself in trouble again with my people, just show them this," she said, and then grinned. "They know better than to mess with my friends."

Riku opened his fingers to look at the stone. It was a brilliant sea-green color--an emerald? A real one? His eyes widened.

"Are you sure?" That stone could have bought a lot of stuff, couldn't it?

"I'm positive," she said, taking him by the shoulder to steer him back toward the stairs that led out of the catacombs. "Friendship doesn't have a price tag; keep it safe and remember I'll always help you when I can."

"Thank you, I will," he said.

He tucked the emerald into his pocket with a faint smile. She was right: friendship _didn't_ have a price, so maybe it didn't really have hard and fast rules any more than a static value. It wasn't a _bad_ thing to want to keep one's friends safe, and Riku knew that he would never have actually _hurt_ Luca unless he'd had absolutely no other choice. Maybe friends were allowed to take priority over duty, so long as that duty was upheld in the end.

Turning over his shoulder, he made a beckoning gesture at Lea and Kairi.

"Come on, you two," he said, jerking his thumb toward the stairs. "We've still got a mission to finish."


	14. The Cottage in the Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Riku has a bad feeling about this.

Riku would never cease to be amazed at where the train seemed to think was an acceptable place to stop. He could understand wanting to keep things unobtrusive, but really, a train stop right in the middle of a dense forest? That struck him as neither convenient nor particularly plausible--how had the train even gotten _through_ the forest? He didn't want to think about the way it traveled in the spaces between the worlds; it gave him a headache.

Kairi seemed far less concerned with how they got there and much more in awe of their surroundings. As they stepped out of the train, her jaw slid open and her eyes widened as she looked up and up and up toward the canopy of the trees impossibly high above them. He had to smile a little--she'd been wowed by Paris, too, and he never quite got tired of seeing her eyes light up that way.

"Wow," she breathed. "What _is_ this place? I've never seen such a beautiful forest..."

Riku cast his eyes up, too, and even Lea let out a low, appraising whistle. 

"It's called The Highlands," Riku said, shoving his hands into his pockets and backing up to peer up the ancient shaft of an old growth tree. "Master Yen Sid said that we need to see a woman named Elinor? She's queen of the Kingdom of DunBroch, which... should be where we are."

"Is the castle in the forest?" Lea asked, sounding impressed. "'Cuz really, I'd say this is a place fit for royalty."

"It's amazing," Kairi said, and Riku nodded.

It was quite the impressive setting, that was for sure. The trees were enormous and clearly very old, their trunks soft with moss and their roots rising away from the damp earth. There were boulders that dotted the landscape as well, cool to the touch, somehow dwarfed by the massive trees around them. Riku could hear a brook babbling from somewhere nearby, and the air was crisp and clean--there wasn't even the slightest hint of any pollutants. It was really refreshing.

The train vanished with a flicker of white light, and Riku glanced behind them, his hands on the straps of his knapsack. They would have to remember where they were, to find the train again later; that was going to be a little difficult in this thick wooded area. Great, that was just what they needed: to get lost and be unable to find their way back to the tower.

"Lea, can you mark these trees?" Riku asked, turning to the older man. "We're gonna need to come back here to take the train home, and I don't want to get lost or forget where it is."

Lea arched one eyebrow. "I'm not going to make the pee joke that you have left yourself wide open for," he said dryly, shaking his head, "because I'm an adult." 

Riku made a face. "Oh come on, that isn't what I meant and you know it." Really, it was hard to believe Lea was the oldest of them. "Don't be gross."

Lea summoned one of his chakrams and dragged a spike along the trunk of the nearest tree, leaving a notch in the bark. He then proceeded to do the same on a few others, leaving notches in a circle around the small clearing where the train had deposited them.

"We'll have to keep an eye on what direction we're headed," he said, turning back to Riku and Kairi, "but this'll at least let us know when we're in the right place."

"Thanks," Riku said, and then shaded his eyes to look up at the sky. "The sun looks like it's at about 4pm, assuming this world runs on a similar schedule to most, which would make..."--he turned, pointing--"that north."

"So which way is this Elinor's castle?" Lea asked, dismissing the chakram, and Riku shook his head.

"I... don't know," he admitted. "Master Yen Sid didn't give me _directions_ ; this is one of the first worlds that was closed off back when the train lines were shut down, he told me. I don't think the Heartless ever even found it. For all we know, it looks completely different now than it did when he was last able to visit it."

"So we're on our own, huh?" Lea scratched his head. "Maybe someone should climb a tree to get a lay of the land."

He was joking, judging by his tone, but Riku wasn't sure that was such a bad idea. If there was a castle nearby, it was likely visible from above the treeline. Kairi was the smallest of them, and would be able to climb the highest with the least chance of breaking branches, but he wasn't sure he was willing to let her do that. Turning to shoot the idea down before she could volunteer, Riku gave a start when he realized Kairi was no longer standing beside him.

"Kairi?" Where had she gone? A lance of panic stabbed at his gut and he whirled. " _Kairi_?"

"Over here!" she called, standing up and waving her arm, and Riku heaved a sigh of relief.

"Sheesh, Kairi, don't just disappear like that," he said, shaking his head and jogging toward her. "What are you doing?"

"Shh, you'll scare it away!" she said, and then disappeared from sight again. Riku looked back to make sure Lea was following him (really, they were all going to wind up separated and lost if he didn't keep them together, they were like sheep!), then furrowed his brow curiously.

"Scare what?" he asked, approaching carefully.

She had crouched back down, huddled near the mossy forest floor, and that was when Riku saw it: a tiny blue light, like a floating flame, just hovering about a foot and a half above the ground. It flickered softly, little tendrils of glowing light beckoning at them, and Kairi giggled.

"Isn't it cute?" she asked, her voice hushed. "It's like a little fairy or something!"

"What is it?" Riku asked, and Lea stepped quietly up alongside them, his hands in his pockets and a befuddled look on his face.

"I don't know," Kairi said, rising slowly back to her feet, "but it looks like it wants us to follow it."

"Are we sure that it's a good idea to follow the inexplicable floating blue lights?" Lea asked, eyebrows arched, and Riku licked his lips.

"I'm not sure it's any less good of an idea than wandering aimlessly through the forest," he said. "If there are Fair Folk in these woods or something, I'm sure they know their way around."

"But what makes you think they want to show _us_ the way around?" Lea pointed out, and Kairi gave them a pleading look.

"I don't think it wants to hurt us," she said, and then gestured toward the hovering light. "Look, it brought all its friends, see?"

As Riku looked back, his lips parted in surprise. Where there had been only one tiny blue light, there was now a line of them, leading away from the clearing and along a path that wound through the woods ahead of them. He watched the flame creatures' tiny arms waving, as if encouraging them to follow, and then he looked up at Lea.

"Well, we have two choices," he said: "we can either follow the little blue lights and see where they go... or we can try and make our own way having no idea where we're going." He shrugged one shoulder. "Should we put it to a vote?"

Lea shook his head. "I already know Kairi's vote. We can follow the lights," he said. "I just think we should stay on-guard."

"When am I ever _not_ on guard?" Riku asked with a snort of laughter, and Lea grinned, shaking his head.

"Touché."

And so they followed the little blue lights through the woods, climbing over fallen trees and hopping over a cold, clear creek; each time they got close to the nearest blue flame it winked out, as if extinguished by a stiff wind. The lights almost seemed to make a soft singing sound as they flickered out, like fingers run around the lip of a crystal glass, a patternless melody, ethereal and almost a little eerie amid the quiet of the forest air. They were never able to touch them, but the little lights remained in a line, leading them to whatever destination they had in mind for them. They walked for a good twenty minutes before they came upon a cottage set into a hillside. The roof was covered in grass and moss, such that it looked like a part of the hill itself, and the stones that were visible looked ancient and sturdy.

"Doesn't look much like a castle," Lea said, dusting his hands off and stuffing them into his pockets again. "Why do you think the little fairy guys brought us here?"

"Maybe whoever lives here knows how to get to the castle?" Kairi suggested, rubbing her arms a little, as though a chill had settled over her. Actually, come to think of it, the air did feel cooler suddenly. That was odd. Riku pulled at the back of his neck and surveyed the grounds of the little cottage, frowning.

"Well, there's smoke coming from the chimney," he pointed out, "so someone's home. I'm sure if the castle is nearby, we can get directions."

He didn't like this. He didn't like it one bit. Something was a little too _easy_ , and in Riku's experience, things that were easy were usually bad news. They had been dropped in the middle of the forest, and had just happened to be shown the way to a mysterious dwelling therein. Who lived here? What were they doing out in the middle of nowhere like this?

"Stay alert," he said quietly, hefting his knapsack and heading for the little wooden door. "I'm not sure what we're gonna find."

"Maybe _ghosts_ ," Lea said in a spooky voice, and Kairi giggled, swatting at him.

"You think ghosts keep a fire going?" she asked, and he thought for a moment.

"Well, _I_ would, if I were a ghost," he said, and she just giggled some more.

"Guys, focus," Riku said as he approached the door, reaching out to knock and then hesitating. The door was so small--it wasn't even as tall as he was. Whoever lived here, they must have been _tiny_.

That was when the door was yanked open abruptly, and he was greeted by a diminutive woman with a beehive of wild white hair and ears that looked a bit too large for her head. Riku jumped back, nearly colliding with Kairi, as the woman opened her arms and smiled toothily at them.

"Ah! I _thought_ I heard voices," she said, waving at them jovially and making a gesture for them to come inside. "Welcome to the Crafty Carver, where you'll find all the delightful, whimsical wood carvings you could ever need!" She waved at them again. "Come, come, come inside! There's a special today: buy one get one free!"

"Ah, we're not--"

"Nonsense," the woman said, wagging one bony finger at them before Riku even had the chance to say what they weren't. "At least come have a look--you've already come all this way."

"How do you know how far we've come?" he asked suspiciously, though he did follow the woman inside. She was just so insistent, it felt rude to stay out in the clearing. She certainly _looked_ harmless enough.

"I'm not exactly local to much of anything, dearie," the woman said, sort of shuffling back to where she was chipping away at a large hunk of wood that was vaguely bear-shaped.

… Actually, everything was vaguely bear-shaped. Or not so vaguely bear-shaped. Riku was pretty sure he'd never seen so many bear-shaped items in one place in his entire life.

"Got a thing for ah... bears, huh?" Lea asked, doubling forward to step inside behind Kairi. The cottage was so small he couldn't even straighten all the way up.

"Bears are amazing creatures," the woman said, "don't you think? They're strong and intelligent--far more intelligent than people give them credit for. I'd say some of them might just be as smart as people."

"I'm not sure about that," Lea said, hiding his amusement behind one hand.

Kairi reached out to touch a carving of a bear balanced on a ball, smiling softly.

"I think they're wonderful," she said. "This is really good work--do you do everything yourself?"

"Each and every piece is carved by hand," the woman said, turning her attention back to her work in progress. "Let me know if you see anything you like!"

"Actually, we're a bit lost," Riku said. "We're looking for Castle DunBroch?"

"Looking for a castle, this far in the woods?" the woman chuckled. "How _ever_ did you get so off track?"

"We were led here," Kairi said, "by some pretty little blue fairies."

"Kairi, shh," Riku said urgently. The last thing they needed was for this old woman to think they were crazy or something.

The woman's eyes lit up, though, and she turned toward them with a knowing smile.

"Ah, so the wisps brought you to me," she said, setting her carving tool down and steepling her fingers together. "I'm sorry, I'm not in the business of changing fates anymore; you'll have to figure that out on your own."

"Fate?" Lea echoed, glancing at the woman and then turning his attention back to a large black bird that was perched atop a particularly tall carving.

"Don't touch that," the woman said, "it's stuffed."

"Stuffed?" Kairi said. "It looks so--"

"Don't stare, it's rude!" the raven squawked, snapping at Lea, who yipped in alarm and recoiled, swearing colorfully under his breath as he cracked his head on the ceiling.

"Stuffed, my behind," he said sharply, rubbing the crown of his head with one hand. 

That was when the puzzle pieces fell together in Riku's head: an old woman in a cottage far from anything, who had apparently been in the business of changing peoples' destinies... and had a _raven_? This woman was no woodcarver. This woman was a _witch_. His heart rate quickened and his hands grew a bit clammy as he nervously laced and unlaced his fingers together. Suddenly he really wanted to be anywhere but here, and he reached out to take Kairi by the elbow.

"Well, we should probably be on our way," he said stiffly, shaking his head a little when Kairi gave him a puzzled look. 

"Leaving so soon?" the woman asked, and Lea looked a bit disappointed as well.

"I thought we were gonna buy a bear," he snickered. Thankfully, for all Lea had a short attention span and no apparent sense of delicacy, he picked up on things easily. The grin on his face fell almost instantly when he saw Riku's troubled expression, and he quickly replaced the carving he'd been looking at. "But I guess duty calls."

"Sorry for disturbing you, ma'am," Riku said; "we've really got to find the castle, so we'll be going now."

"Just head east," the old woman said, lifting her eyes from her carving work. "The castle is near the cliffs that overlook the sea, so if you keep going east, you'll find it."

"Thank you for showing us your lovely work!" Kairi called as Riku all but dragged her out of the cottage.

"Anytime, dearie! Tell your friends about the Crafty Carver!" the woman called as the raven fluttered across the cottage to sit on her shoulder.

Stuffed indeed.

Kairi stumbled a bit as Riku pulled her out of the cottage, and Lea ducked his head to avoid hitting it in the doorway as he followed. Straightening and putting his hands on the small of his back, Lea arched his spine with a grimace.

"Ugh, I've knocked my head on a few ceilings in my day," he said, "but that place takes the..."

He stopped short as he opened his eyes to look at Riku, freezing where he stood.

"… Cake," he concluded distractedly.

"What's wrong?" Riku asked, and that was when he realized: they weren't in the clearing anymore. They stood in the center of a circle of towering stones, at the edge of the very forest they had only a moment ago been in the thick of. "Weren't... we just..."

"In the middle of the woods?" Kairi finished for him, her eyes wide and her mouth agape.

"Well, that wasn't really spooky or anything," Lea said, his hands still on his spine as a visible shudder crept through his shoulders. He glanced at Riku then. "So what happened, anyway?" he asked. "You looked like you were about to have a panic attack in there."

Riku finally released Kairi's elbow and wrung his hands. "Lea, haven't you figured it out?" he asked. "The cottage, the raven, the... appearing in a completely different place than where we were--she was a _witch_ , not a peddler."

Lea shrugged one shoulder. "And?" He shook his head. "Ain't a witch just a woman who can use magic? We can all use magic, too, you know."

"Witches are different," Riku insisted. "Sure, they can use the same magic we do, but they have an entirely other set of skills they can use. Witches... _conjure_ things, and use mind tricks. You heard what she said: they deal in changing peoples' _fates_. They're not something you wanna mess with."

"Was she really a witch?" Kairi looked a little uncomfortable, like she felt cheated somehow.

Riku nodded. "Believe me, I've... been around a few witches," he said. He could still feel Maleficent's skeletal fingers on his shoulders sometimes, still hear her perfect articulation as she whispered lies into his ears. He wrapped his arms around himself involuntarily, feeling that same eerie chill he'd felt when they'd approached the cottage. "She was definitely a witch."

"Whaddaya think she meant, though?" Lea asked, rubbing his head absently where he'd hit it against the ceiling of the cottage. "About changing fates?"

"It doesn't matter," he said, letting his arms fall back to his sides. "Let's just go find the castle, okay? We need to talk to Elinor about reopening the tracks to this world, so let's get going."

"She said go east," Kairi said, biting at her lower lip, "but do you think we can trust that?"

"I doubt she would bother to give bad directions," Riku admitted. "I wouldn't trust much out of a witch's mouth, but I don't think she realized I knew." He turned and shaded his eyes, looking up at the sky to judge the position of the sun. "It's getting late," he said; "we'd better get a move on. I don't know how far it is to the castle, and it's going to be dark soon. I'd rather not camp out here."

"Seconded," Lea said, still rubbing his head.

"East is this way," Riku said, giving Kairi's arm a tug and starting forward. "Come on."

And he headed out of the circle of stones toward the rapidly darkening eastern sky. Kairi's footsteps fell softly behind him, and after a moment without hearing Lea's follow, he paused and glanced back. Lea was still standing in the center of the circle, facing the woods, seemingly transfixed.

What in the worlds was he doing?

"Lea, come on," he called, and Lea gave a start.

"What?" He shook his head quickly, like he was trying to clear it, then sort of frowned at him. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." Jogging to catch up, Lea fell into step behind them as they headed away from the woods. It was funny the way the woods had seemed so benign and welcoming, right up until they had arrived at the witch's cottage. 

Now Riku couldn't quite shake the chill from his spine.


	15. Princess and Princess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kairi has a lot to consider.

Castle DunBroch was a hale, hearty structure, with broad stone towers and a heavy perimeter wall. Kairi had been instantly enchanted with the friendliness of the people, and laughed freely at King Fergus' gesticulations as he regaled them with the history of the kingdom. He reminded her a bit of Lea, actually, the way he moved his arms with gusto and spoke with his whole body. The queen had had to shush him several times in order to announce that there would be a feast in honor of their guests--let it never be said that Clan DunBroch did not treat visitors well. Kairi was utterly delighted with this place, and before the evening was half over she had already decided this mission was a rousing success. Elinor was beautiful and graceful, and the discussion on reopening the train route was had with relative ease. She was so proud of Riku for not even balking this time, he had really come a long way since their first mission--he'd hardly fumbled at all! And there had only been minimal spluttering when Elinor invited the three of them stay the night in the castle. He had insisted it was only all right because they would never find the spot in the forest in the dark in the rain, but Kairi had a sneaking suspicion he was actually just learning to be okay with the idea of accepting the hospitality of others. That was a big step for him.

Kairi had quickly hit it off with Merida, who was about as unorthodox a princess as she was. Fascinated by Merida's tale of the time her mother was turned into a bear, Kairi had eagerly followed her around, to the stables to meet her horse Angus, through the kitchens, and she was content to listen to her feats of danger and daring well into the evening. She wished _she_ could have had such grand adventures, climbing cliffsides and exploring the depths of the forest. Merida, for one, seemed elated to have someone else her age around, and had been more than happy to entertain Kairi over the course of the day.

"Here, one second," Merida said, and Kairi twisted to try and look at the laces that ran down the back of the dress. Merida gave them a tug and tied a neat bow, then spun Kairi to face her. "There ye go, all done."

"I feel like a _real_ princess," Kairi said gleefully, twirling to watch the shiny dark green fabric swirl around her ankles. "This gown is so beautiful."

"Ye can have it if ye like," Merida said casually, and Kairi's jaw slid open.

"Seriously?" she asked, gathering the front of the dress and hopping up onto the bed in the room she'd been afforded for the evening. It was more than twice the size of her bedroom back home!

"Sure, sure," Merida said, waving one hand. "I have dozens. That one's a little too fancy for my taste anyway." She smiled. "It looks great on ye."

Kairi blushed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Thank you," she said. "I promise I'll take extra good care of it." 

"Ehh, ye won't have to try _too_ hard, it's pretty sturdy," Merida said with a laugh. "I'm not exactly easy on my clothes; mum gets on my case about it a lot."

She adjusted the gown where she sat then, draping it over her knees and giving Merida a curious look. "By the way, how come your mother had us speak to her about the routes between worlds without the king?" she asked. Elinor had pulled them aside almost as soon as she'd met them; Kairi had figured their clothes were what gave them away, but she wasn't sure why she'd been so insistent on talking to them in private. "Isn't he interested in these sorts of things, too?" She couldn't quite imagine a king _not_ being concerned with the security of his world, especially a friendly, jovial one like Fergus.

"My dad doesn't believe in magic," Merida said with a grin. "He believes in things he can see and touch, things he can explain with broad gestures and loud words." She shook her head, her mane of curls brushing against her face gently. "He has no idea that our world is just one thread in a much larger tapestry."

"So the queen takes care of everything by herself?" Kairi looked impressed. "That seems like a lot of work for just one person. Is she all right with that?"

"I think she likes it better that way." Merida tucked her legs up beneath her dress, gripping her ankles as she looked thoughtful for a moment. "She's very independent, and has her own way of doing things... I think she thinks my dad is too silly to be trusted with something so serious." She chuckled then. "He's very good at what he does--he's strong as an ox and definitely knows how to win wars," she said, "but he doesn't really have a handle on the politics of running a kingdom." She smiled fondly, putting her chin in one hand. "So, my mum balances him out well. He keeps us safe, and she keeps the peace."

"That's a really good partnership," Kairi said, and Merida nodded.

"I didn't really appreciate it for a long time," she admitted. "I thought my mum was just kind of a curmudgeon, always so serious and having t'have things her way, but I understand her a lot more now." She shook her head again. "When she trusted me with the knowledge that there are many other worlds, something so important... That was when I knew our relationship had truly changed."

Kairi smiled broadly. She didn't remember her parents, or where she had come from, but if there was one thing she understood well, it was the bonds between people who loved one another. No relationship was perfect, each and every one had its weak points, but when people really learned to understand one another, nothing could tear them apart. She was glad Merida had found that with her mother.

"I can only hope I'll be as good at it one day as she is," Merida said, and gave Kairi a curious smile then. "So," she said, leaning forward, "while we're on the subject of partnerships, tell me about yer lads."

"My _lads_?" Kairi sat up a little straighter, not quite sure what to say to this.

"Yes, Lea and Riku," Merida said with a grin. "They seem like good boys."

"They are!" Kairi said quickly. Of _course_ they were good boys! Even when Axel had kidnapped her, she had quickly come to realize that he wasn't _bad_. Why would she hang out with anyone who wasn't good? "They both take this work pretty seriously, after all; of _course_ they're good."

"Ye're friends, though, right?" Merida asked. "I mean, ye're not just working together, it's definitely more than that."

Kairi looked a little abashed, as if Merida had uncovered a secret, and she ducked her head.

"I've known Riku since we were little," Kairi said. "He's more than just my teacher, you're right. Him and our other friend Sora, we've been best friends for as long as I can remember. We always did everything together, but recently Riku's... gotten into this troublesome habit of trying to do everything by himself." She fiddled with her hair again, twisting a lock between her fingers. "He works really hard, and that's why I want to make sure I'm a good student: when the time comes to protect all the worlds from Darkness, I want to do this _with_ him. I don't want to be left behind anymore, I don't want to be a burden."

"Sounds like it won't be easy," Merida appraised after a pause. "I'd like t'see these Keyblades of yers sometime. I've seen the way my dad handles a sword, but something tells me they're not yer typical weapon."

"Not at all," Kairi said, smiling. "I'm sure we could arrange for something, though. I bet if you asked, Riku would spar with you."

"Swords aren't really my thing," she replied, "but maybe you two could give me and mum a demonstration." She plunked her chin down in her hands then. "Ye haven't told me about Lea yet," Merida idly reminded her then, and Kairi pressed her lips together.

"I haven't known Lea very long," she admitted, "so I'm still getting to know him. In fact, the first time we met, I thought he was a real jerk."

Merida laughed. "He's changed yer mind since?" she asked. 

"Mostly," Kairi said. "He's still kind of a jerk, but he's definitely not the way I thought he'd be."

"He doesn't seem so bad. He was really polite with mum," Merida said.

"He's not bad at all, really," Kairi said, hiding amusement behind one hand, "he just wants people to think he is. He keeps things to himself, you know? He and Riku have that in common, actually; he doesn't like anybody to see when he's hurt or sad. He worries about things a lot more than he wants to admit, and I think he doesn't really know how to accept that about himself, so he lashes out sometimes." She lowered her eyes. "I didn't realize that quite soon enough, I think."

She was a little ashamed about that, actually. Kairi prided herself on _understanding_ people, but when Axel had kidnapped her, she hadn't extended him any benefit of doubt. Even when he'd tried (albeit clumsily) to explain himself, saying they both missed someone they cared about, she had been too afraid to really try and see things from his side. He shouldn't have kidnapped her in the first place, but she knew that he hadn't done it with intent to harm her. She knew that he would never hurt her now--he had promised to have her back, and she believed him. He had changed for the better, and had won that trust she had dared him to earn.

"Sometimes we don't really understand the people we love until we're forced to see things from their side," Merida said. 

Love? Kairi looked thoughtful for a moment. She could say without hesitation that she loved Riku, but that was something that had been built up between them over the years. She hadn't known Lea long, but he had become very important to her. Love, though? She didn't know about that. In the few months they'd been working together, she had seen a side of him she had never expected to find: he was perceptive and generous and surprisingly sincere. She cared about him a great deal, but she wasn't sure how to define her feelings. There were many different kinds of love, that she knew for certain, and the love she felt for Riku was different even than the love she felt for Sora, but was what she felt for Lea _love_? How was she supposed to tell? Ugh, feelings were so confusing.

"I'm still learning a lot about my mum, but it takes work," Merida said, and Kairi shook her head quickly to clear it. Merida lowered her voice a little, cupping one hand beside her mouth. "She still drives me a bit crazy sometimes, but don't tell her I said that."

Kairi laughed. "I won't breathe a word, I promise." She shook her head. She could work on figuring out her feelings later. right now she just wanted to enjoy being a helpful part of this team. "I think I have a lot to learn about both of them, really," she said then. "I may have known Riku for a long time, but he's good at keeping secrets. Neither of them like to actually talk about themselves, so it's a lot of reading between the lines."

Merida chuckled. "Pesky things, lines."

Kairi leaned back on her hands, staring up at the canopy over the bed for a long moment. She really did want to get to know them both better. Though she knew Riku well enough to read into his actions, there was still a lot about him that she couldn't quite understand. He held everything in, kept it all tucked away inside his vest, like exposure to the outside air might give away the fact that he was fallible and only human, like maybe if he hid his flaws they would go away. She wanted to see those flaws, wanted to hold them in her hands and tell Riku that it was okay, that he was still her best friend even if he wasn't perfect, and nothing would ever change that.

A rap at the door startled her out of contemplation, and she jumped, sitting up straight.

"Kairi?" Riku's voice came urgent and worried through the door. "Kairi, are you in there?"

Kairi hopped down off the bed and hustled to the door, pulling it open. "Riku?" His face was blanched, his brow creased. Something had him really on edge and Kairi was instantly worried. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Riku blinked at her, seemingly surprised by the dress, and his face flushed a little. He glanced past her into the room. "Is Lea with you?" he asked, and then ducked his head as spotted Merida. "Oh... princess, I'm sorry, I hope I didn't interrupt anything."

"Ye're fine, we were just havin' a gob," Merida said, sliding down off the bed to approach them in the doorway. "What's going on?"

"The door to Lea's room was open," he said, his eyes bright with concern, "so I looked in to make sure everything was all right, but he wasn't there."

"Not there?" Merida echoed, looking puzzled. "But... where would he go?"

Kairi wondered the same thing. They had all been given the grand tour of the castle, so it wasn't likely he was off exploring unvisited corridors. Honestly, she had figured he would just go and nap, like he always said he liked so much to do. For a guy who claimed to enjoy sleeping a lot, he didn't seem to do all that much of it.

"I don't _know_ where he went," Riku said, fidgeting with his hands a bit, "and that's why I'm worried. Is it just me, or did he seem a little... off, all evening?"

"It's not just you," Kairi said. "He seemed really distracted. I thought maybe he was just tired, but..." 

Distracted wasn't like him at all. If Kairi had noticed anything about Lea, it was that he was very observant; he always seemed to take special notice of everything in a room, like he was taking inventory. It was as though he had to know every exit and every nuance before he could relax, and in a way she understood that, but seeing him preoccupied and troubled had been odd. She hadn't given it too much thought, figuring perhaps he had just missed a nap or two. When they had been told during dinner that they were welcome to stay the night in any of the castle's many guest rooms, he had excused himself after the final course, and she had presumed he'd gone to his room to sleep. 

Something clicked somewhere in the back of her mind, and Kairi reached out to take Riku's hand.

"Riku, you don't think he went back to the forest, do you?" she asked, and Riku furrowed his brow.

"The forest?" he asked. "Why would he go there?"

"Don't you remember?" she said, glancing toward the window. "When we wound up in that clearing, with the big stones, he kept looking back toward the woods, like there was something there we couldn't see." She tightened her fingers around his hand. "Riku, what if he went to find that witch?"

"Witch?" Merida brought both hands to her face. "Ye saw the witch? The one in the forest? She's the one what turned my mum into a bear! _Tell_ me ye didn't talk to her."

Riku shook his head. "No, not really," he said. "We were led to her cottage by--"

"By the wisps!" Merida tugged at her hair and groaned. "Oh, no, what did she say to ye?"

"She tried to sell us wood carvings," Kairi said; "we didn't realize she was a witch until Riku connected the dots, and then we got out of there real fast."

"You're right, though," Riku said, pressing a knuckle to his chin, "that is about the time when I first noticed Lea seemed out of sorts. Do you really think he would go back to the witch, though? I _told_ you guys witches were bad news."

"She said something about changing fate," Kairi said, glancing at Merida. "Do you know what that means?"

Merida groaned again. "Aye, she'll change yer fate all right," she said. "She'll curse ye for life if ye're not careful."

"Riku, we have to go look for him," Kairi said. "You _know_ he's still unsure about his skill with the Keyblade. He's still hung up on whether or not he's even good enough to be a _good_ guy. If he thinks that witch can change his fate..."

"He might wind up biting off more than he can chew," Riku concluded, setting his jaw. 

"Legend says that a will'o the wisp can lead ye to the fate that is laid out for ye," Merida told them grimly. "If the wisps led ye to the witch, like they did me, then Lea could be setting himself up for a world of trouble."

"You're right," Riku said, and then looked at Kairi. "We have to go find him."

"But it's dark now," Kairi said, rubbing her arms as though she'd caught a sudden chill, "and it started raining after dinner. How will we ever even _find_ him?"

"If he's got a head start on ye, ye'll be wantin' a horse," Merida said, grabbing the door and heading out into the hall. "Can ye ride?"

"I know how, but it's been a while," Riku said, and Merida nodded.

"Come on, then, ye can take Angus," she said. "He's strong enough to carry both of ye, and he knows the way to the circle of stones. He'll get ye to the circle right quick, even in the dark. If Lea went on foot, he'll be a while to get there, ye should still be able to catch him before he hits the woods."

"Wait, just us?" Kairi gave Merida a puzzled look, and the princess smiled kindly.

"Ye said it yerself, that he doesn't like anyone to see him hurt or upset," she said. "I hardly think he'd want a stranger there when ye go to get him back." She clapped both of them on the shoulder. "Angus will treat ye right and get ye there fast; go and find yer friend, and I'll be here waitin' to make sure ye get back all right."

Kairi hugged Merida tightly around the neck. "Thank you," she said softly as she pulled back.

"Yes, thank you," Riku said with a nod, stepping aside as Merida swept past him, her skirts whispering in the empty hallway. "We'll owe you one."

"Ye'll owe me none," Merida said. "I made the mistake of trusting that witch once, and I nearly lost my mum for it. I can't just stand by and watch someone else make the same mistake I did. Come on, to the stables," she called over her shoulder, hiking up her dress and picking up her pace. "There's no time to waste, not when witches and wisps are involved!"

Kairi exchanged a quick, worried glance with Riku, then hiked up her own dress and hurried after Merida. She only hoped they would find Lea before Lea found the witch and made a huge mistake they would _all_ wind up paying for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my friend got me all hyped up with this huge KH discussion so have this chapter early gosh. ♥ thanks for all the hits, guys, i love that you're enjoying this story!


	16. Stronger Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lea finds himself not so alone as he thought.

Despite his element of choice, Lea had never really had any aversion to water. Though Radiant Garden hadn't had any significant bodies of water within the walls, he was a strong swimmer, and he'd quickly found an appreciation for the ocean.

The rain that fell over the kingdom of DunBroch that night, however, was starting to get on his nerves. It fell in sheets, driven by a chilly wind that made it hard to see what was in front of him. He wasn't sure umbrellas had been invented yet on this world, but one wouldn't have done him much good, anyway; it would have turned inside out in no time. The weather had been so nice, earlier--what had happened?

It didn't matter. It was what it was, and he knew if he didn't do this now he wasn't going to get the chance. He had to go back to the cottage in the woods, he had to talk to that witch, and he had to do it while Riku and Kairi were otherwise occupied. Lea knew all too well that Riku had had a bad experience with Maleficent--the Organization had kept detailed notes on both him and Sora, after all. Maleficent had toyed with his head and filled it with lies, and Lea could appreciate Riku's apprehension--really, he could!--but this was a completely different situation. Lea wasn't going to put himself in a position to be taken advantage of; all he was going to do was ask for a little of that fate-changing magic she'd seemed so reluctant to discuss.

It didn't matter that she'd said she didn't do that anymore. He could be very persuasive when he put his mind to it.

He tugged the hood of his coat up over his head, trying to block out some of the rain, and a shiver crawled up his spine as the water that had collected in the hood spilled down his back.

"Light _dammit_ anyway," he snarled, hunching his shoulders and plodding forward. Ugh, this had better have been worth it. If witches were powerful enough to change people's lives so drastically, then it _had_ to be worth it, right? This was the only way.

The circle of stones loomed in the distance, and Lea breathed a sigh of relief. At least he'd been going in the right direction. In the rain, it was hard to tell which way was _up_! Picking up his pace a little, he jogged down the soggy, muddy road, his hood pulled down over his ears and his hair plastered against his forehead. As he stepped into the circle, he could have sworn the rain lightened a bit, a hush falling over the earth as the wind seemed to quiet. The grass was plush and thick, soft beneath his boots, and the stones rose away from the earth like great shadows cast by figures the eye couldn't see. Beyond the stones, the woods stood dark and ominous, silent but for the hiss of the rain against the trees. It was so _dark_ , he could hardly see, and a lance of anxiety spiked in his gut.

No, he couldn't chicken out now. He had to do this. It was the _only_ way.

"All right, where are you, you little blue fairy lights?" he asked aloud, turning in a slow circle, looking for the strange little creatures that had led them to the witch earlier that day. "Come on, I need your help."

He would never find the cottage on his own. Lea had a pretty good sense of direction, but they'd been spilled out into the circle without actually going _through_ the woods: backtracking wasn't going to be possible. Turning around again, he cast his eyes toward the woods and set his jaw.

"Where are you?" he demanded, a little more loudly this time. "Don't leave me hangin' here, come on! I came all the way out here in this awful weather, and you're just gonna bail?"

Didn't it just _figure_!? Lea knew that when it came to close calls and second chances, he was about as lucky as anyone could get, but as far as actual luck stats went, he was barely passing. He had lost his home, his heart, and all three of his best friends-- Wait, three? That wasn't right, why had he thought three? He had lost his two best friends, and the only reason he'd gotten his heart _back_ was because he'd _died_. If that wasn't a statement to just how much went his way then he didn't know what was.

There was a flicker of lightning in the corner of his eye, but the storm was still several miles away; the quiet thunder that rumbled across the sky moments later was barely audible. Lea scowled; he almost _wanted_ the lightning, the thunder, to go with the fierce wind and the buckets of rain. It felt too peaceful without it! He was exasperated and a little afraid, actually, and the quiet calm of the rain, even as it fell hard and cold, was almost dissonant against the tangle of snarled thoughts in his head.

He _had_ to go through with this! It wouldn't work otherwise, he _knew_ it wouldn't. He wasn't strong enough to make it work, but the magic of a witch could fix that. Fate couldn't stand in his way forever.

Another soft growl of thunder rolled through the distant sky, and as Lea turned back toward the woods again, he spotted it: a glimmer of blue at the edge of the circle.

" _There_ you are," he said, swiping his sopping wet hair off his forehead and watching as the line of little blue flames formed behind the first one, leading deep into the forest and out of sight. "I knew you wouldn't let me down."

Closing his hands into fists, Lea squared his shoulders. He had one shot at this, and he wasn't going to waste it. Crossing the clearing in the center of the circle, Lea approached the little blue light, watching as it beckoned at him, its little fiery arms reaching for him. He lifted his eyes to look down the line of blue lights, squinting through the rain to try and see where they led, but the dark was too thick, the woods too obscured. His heart pounding in his chest, Lea took a deep breath and held it a moment, then exhaled.

It was now or never.

He reached out with one hand, as if to touch the tiny blue flame.

" _Lea_!"

Riku's voice cut through the rain and wind and hit him like a kick to the knees. Recoiling sharply and turning around all in one motion, Lea watched in something like bafflement as a horse appeared at the edge of the circle, its hooves sliding over the wet ground, Riku's silver hair like a beacon of light against the blackness of the night.

"Lea, _stop_ , don't do this!" Riku shouted, pulling on the reins and reaching forward to pat the side of the horse's neck as it shifted its feet nervously.

Lea narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

"Go back to the castle, Riku," he said. "This doesn't concern you."

"It concerns _both_ of us," Kairi piped up, and Lea brought a hand to his face. Great, he'd brought Kairi, too? "Lea, you're our friend, and we're not just going to let you run off and do something dangerous like this."

He sliced his hand through the air, frustrated. "Do you guys think I'm _stupid_?" he asked. "I'm not gonna go sell my soul or anything--I know what I'm doing."

"Everyone thinks they know what they're doing," Riku said, swinging his leg over the horse's side and dropping to the ground, "and by the time they realize they messed up, it's too late."

"Well aren't you just the voice of experience," Lea grumbled, curling his lip a little. "Look, I don't need you to tell me about mistakes, okay? I've made enough of my own to know one when I see one."

"Do you?" Riku pulled at his jacket, like maybe it would help shield him from the rain, and then shook his head. "Lea, no matter what you think you know, or how important you think this is, it isn't worth getting involved with a _witch_."

He held Riku's gaze for a long moment, then glanced up when movement caught his eye. Watching as Kairi slid down from the horse's back as well, Lea sighed.

"You're both getting drenched," he said, "and exactly none of this is going to change my mind."

"Lea, you _don't_ have to do this," Kairi said, hiking up her rain-heavy dress and moving behind Riku. "You don't _need_ a witch to change your fate--you've already changed it!" She gestured at him, her bright blue eyes wide and worried. "You're one of us now; your fate has _been_ changed."

Lea gawped at her a moment, then he just threw his head back and _laughed_. It was a loud, caustic sound, not at all like his usual friendly laughter, and it echoed almost eerily off the trees. Was that really what they thought? They thought he was going to see the witch about him _self_? Kairi was right, he _had_ already changed his fate, and he had every intention of maintaining that, but he still needed the witch's help. Did they really not see it?

"I'm not here to change _my_ fate," he said. His voice was sharp, brassy over the rain. "It's not _my_ fate I'm worried about. I'm still in control of my own destiny, I know that. It's _Isa's_ fate I'm here to change. Isa's, Roxas', Naminé's..." He inhaled as if to speak another name, then balked. There it was again! It was like there was something perpetually perched on the tip of his tongue! What did it mean?

Shaking his head, he turned to look at the little blue flames that led into the woods, at their tiny arms, beckoning him to follow them. 

"They're the ones who need help," he said, his voice softer now. "They can't change their own fates anymore, and I..." He shook his head again. "I don't know how else to help them."

There was a beat of silence, and then he heard Riku take a step closer. "Lea..."

"I don't know how to save them, okay?" He turned over his shoulder and gave Riku the harshest glare he could muster. "I'm not a hero like you are, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. If I blow it, they don't _get_ another chance, so I can't take that risk."

"Lea, that isn't--"

He whirled on him, his eyes flashing angrily.

"Isn't _what_ , Riku?" he demanded. "That isn't what? Isn't worth it? Isn't my responsibility? I don't wanna hear it."

Lea rarely lost his temper, but if there was one thing that put him over the edge, it was what was or was not his _responsibility_ when it came to a certain circle of people. Isa, Roxas, Naminé, they _were_ his responsibility. If he had just been stronger, paid more attention, if he'd just _listened_ instead of thinking he knew better, they might _all_ have still been here, been safe. He might not have had to lose _any_ of them, if he'd just been a better _person_ , and it vexed him. It would continue to vex him until he'd set things right, and this was his best chance to do just that.

"Roxas deserves a second chance a helluva lot more than I do," he said, baring his teeth, "and I'm not going to pass up the opportunity to give it to him."

"This isn't the way to go about it, Lea," Kairi said, and Lea's eyes found her in the darkness. Her dress was weighted down with the rain and her hair clung to her neck, making her look smaller than she was. "There has to be another way."

"There _is_ no other way," he snarled, shaking his head. "They're _my_ responsibility. I have to save them, and I don't know how. What if I can't do it?" He looked back to the blue fairy flames then, turning his back to Riku and Kairi. "What if I'm not strong enough to save them alone?"

"You're not _alone_!"

Kairi's words crashed into him like the rain, striking his ears and then running through his whole body before he turned, slowly, to give her a look that teetered between suspicion and desperation. She'd brought her hands up near her heart, her fingers clasped together and her eyes wide and sad.

"Do you really still think you're all alone?" she asked. "Lea, I know you were all by yourself when you were in the Organization. We _both_ know that, but you're _not_ anymore! You have both of us, me and Riku! And Sora, and Donald, and Goofy, the King, even Master Yen Sid. We're all here to help you now, but you never want to _let_ us." She reached for his hand. "We want to help you, Lea, but we can't if you won't let us. Don't you understand that?"

The rain peppered against his hood, and the noise was too loud. It hurt his ears. Reaching up and tugging the hood back, Lea let the rain spill down the sides of his face as Kairi's words echoed in his head. 

He really wasn't alone after all, was he? Every time he'd felt isolated or lost, even though he'd learned how not to show it anymore, they'd been there. Kairi and Riku had _been there_ , with smiles and outstretched hands. They had been there with sincerity he still could barely muster himself, with words he still didn't know how to say. They had taught him so much more than just Keyblade forms, and he _knew_ that. Was he really so quick to just throw it all away?

He'd screwed up so badly, though. He'd just stood by and watched as Saïx pulled away from him. He'd _driven_ the wedge between himself and Roxas. Lea wasn't sure he even knew _how_ to really have friends anymore; he just kept messing up every time he did. He was tired of everything being his fault, tired of being the reason things went wrong. Wasn't it easier to be alone? Didn't it hurt less?

No. It hurt _more_. It hurt more than he had words for, and he didn't even have the excuse that he couldn't feel it to get him through it anymore. He _wanted_ Kairi and Riku to be his friends, he _wanted_ to lean on them, because he was so _tired_ of having to stand tall and strong by himself. It was exhausting to be fine all the time, especially when you knew you _weren't_ fine. He had spent ten years being a single pillar, though; how was he supposed to know how to redistribute the weight now?

They would help him, wouldn't they? Riku and Kairi, they weren't going to turn away from him when things got difficult, he _knew_ that, so why did he keep digging his heels in?

Lea hesitated, looking at Kairi's hand and then her face, and then he glanced at Riku. Riku just smiled faintly and nodded his head. Taking a deep breath and holding it a moment, Lea held his hand out, letting it hover near Kairi's a moment. Kairi took the initiative then, closing both of her hands around his and pulling it down gently.

"You don't have to do this by yourself," she said quietly, her voice almost too soft to hear over the rain. "We want to save them too, so let's do this together, okay?"

His shoulders had tensed up at her touch, but he forced them to relax a little. There was no reason to be apprehensive about this, was there? They had been nothing but kind and helpful to him--they wouldn't let him down. They _wouldn't_. Any more than he was willing to let _them_ down.

"You're strong, Lea," Riku said, reaching out and put one hand over Kairi's where they were both wrapped around Lea's, "but we're all stronger together."

Lea frowned. His hand was _freezing_. He'd really made things hard for them tonight, hadn't he? He'd been stupid and rash; he'd done exactly what he'd said he wasn't doing to do anymore: he thought he'd known better, and he hadn't _listened_.

He nodded. "Okay," he said, unable to meet their eyes. "Yeah, I... okay. Okay." He hesitated, then glanced up, looking from Riku to Kairi and back before lowering his eyes again. "Let's... let's go back to the castle," he said, frowning as he gently tugged his hand free of Kairi's. "This isn't good weather to take long walks."

"Couldn't agree more," Riku said, rubbing his arms and then glancing back at the horse at the edge of the circle. "I don't know if Angus can carry three, though..."

Lea shook his head. "It's fine," he said; "I walked here, I can walk back. You two go on ahead--"

"Not a chance," they both said in tandem, and Lea gave a start, and then laughed softly.

"I promise I'm not just trying to get rid of you," he said, and Riku shook his head.

"We told you: you're not alone anymore," he said, "and we mean it. If you're walking back, we're walking with you. Come on."

Lea just stood stock still for a moment as Riku turned and headed toward the horse, reaching up and swinging the reins around so he could lead it on foot. Kairi just hiked up her dress and followed, and Lea managed a thin smile.

"Come on, Lea," Kairi called, waving her hand at him. "Let's go!"

He tugged his hood back up and jogged over to meet them, and they walked the rainswept road back to the castle in companionable silence. Kairi reached out and snatched his wrist in one hand somewhere along the way, like she was making sure he didn't decide to stray off the road back to the castle, and Lea just let her hold his arm the whole way. He didn't know what he'd done right to deserve people like this in his life, but he was glad he'd done it, whatever it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this has been one of my favorite chapters to write so far. thanks for enjoying this fic with me! and as always, thanks to Saree for being the best beta ever!


	17. Under the Weather

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lea and Riku strike a bargain.

Riku awoke to a knock at the door, and immediately wished he hadn't woken up. Ugh, he felt _awful_! His throat was sore, his head ached horribly, and it felt like he'd managed to stuff a bunch of cottonballs up his nose and into his brain. He sort of groaned, pressing his hand against his forehead.

Great, this was _just_ what he needed.

There was another knock at the door.

"Riku, are you in there?" came Lea's voice from the other side, and Riku scrubbed at one eye socket with the heel of his hand.

"Yeah?" He tossed the blankets on the bed aside and swung his legs over the edge of the mattress. Why was it so _cold_ in here? "What's up?"

"Are you okay?" Lea sounded worried, and Riku just made a bit of a face.

"I'm fine," he said, puzzled. "You can come in, it's not locked or anything."

The door creaked open and Lea poked his head in, frowning. He sort of squinted at Riku a moment, like he was looking for a spelling mistake, and then stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

"What's the matter?" Riku asked, shaking his head. "You look like you didn't expect me to be here."

"It's after ten," Lea said; "I just expected you to be up and about like two hours ago."

"After _ten_?" Riku's voice became a croak and he coughed into one hand, then gave Lea a startled look. "Are you serious?"

Lea narrowed his eyes. "Yes, I'm serious," he said. "I didn't see you down in the hall or anything, so I figured I'd come make sure nothing had happened."

Riku shook his head. "No, nothing happened," he said, hunching his shoulders a bit, half in embarrassment and half because he was _cold_. "I guess I just lost track of time."

"You should try sleeping in more often," Lea chuckled, waving a hand dismissively. "You might find you like it."

"Where's Kairi?" Riku asked, changing the subject, and Lea shrugged one shoulder.

"The princess ran off with her earlier this morning," he said. "Something about a waterfall?"

"If she's with Merida I'm sure she's safe," Riku said, relaxing a little. Even if he felt utterly lousy, he could never quite turn off that danger sense. He worried about Kairi a lot, and not knowing where she was gave him anxiety like little else could. He glanced back up at Lea, tilting his head a little. "Something tells me there's more to this visit than just teasing me for oversleeping," he said, and Lea looked a little flustered.

"A-actually..." He pulled at the back of his neck and leaned against one of the posts of the bed. "I, ah... I wanted to say thanks," he said, "for what you and Kairi did. You know, last night." He met Riku's eye briefly, then glanced away. "It's been a long time since I felt like my absence wouldn't go unnoticed, you know? So... I really, ah... appreciate it." He rolled one shoulder back, fidgeting. "S-sorry I was so much trouble."

Riku smiled a little. Lea obviously didn't have much experience in saying please and thank you, and even less saying he was sorry, but he was trying, and that counted for so much.

"You don't have to apologize," he said, clearing his throat. "I'm just glad we found you in time." 

"Well, I'm grateful, okay?" He almost sounded sullen, like saying thanks was a chore, and Riku chuckled.

"Friends do that sort of thing." He glanced at him, scooting back on the mattress and folding his legs up. "I know how much you want to save Roxas and Isa," he said. "You don't have to do it all by yourself, though; isn't it better to get help from your friends instead of a witch?"

Lea looked uncomfortable, then shrugged one shoulder.

"In theory," he said noncommittally, and Riku kind of laughed.

"I guess that's better than 'no'." He braced his hands on his knees. "It's fine, really," he said. "You said you'd bail me out if the Darkness got me, remember? It's only fair to return the favor."

Lea just pulled at the back of his neck some more. "I guess so," he muttered. "I just thought... if I could just change what had happened, maybe they'd be better off anyway, you know?"

"You can't change the past, Lea," Riku said, shaking his head. "I'm not even sure a _witch_ can do that. You've seen what Xehanort's messing with time can do: it's destructive, dark magic, and even if it's for a _good_ cause it's not something you want to--" He turned away and sneezed into the crook of his arm, shook his head and scrubbed at his face, then sneezed again. "Not something you want to mess with," he concluded in a scratchy voice. Ugh, that had hurt.

Lea's eyes were narrow again, and Riku fidgeted.

"What?" he asked. "S... someone's just got a lot to say about me today, right?" Wasn't that what Lea had said about sneezing?

Lea pushed away from the bed and closed the distance between them in two long strides.

"That's not gossip," he said, reaching out with one arm, and Riku quailed. What in the worlds was he doing? "It ain't allergies, either--you're sick." That was when Lea's palm met Riku's forehead, and the older man made a sibilant noise. "You were out in the rain last night chasing me down, and now you're sick."

"It's not a big deal," Riku insisted, swatting at Lea's hand and leaning away from him. Of _course_ he hadn't been about to hit him; Lea wouldn't _hit_ him, right? Why had he flinched? "I get sick real easily anyway."

"That doesn't make it _okay_ ," Lea said, shaking his head hopelessly and then he glanced down at Riku's clothes. "Did you seriously sleep in your rainsoaked clothes?" he asked then, and Riku glowered.

"I didn't have anything else!" he said sharply. "I can't just sleep in my underwear--I don't even do that at home!"

Lea palmed his face. "You have your _own room_ , you lunkhead," he said. "It's not like anybody would have _seen_ you. No wonder you got sick, sleeping in soaking wet clothes in this drafty old castle."

"Well ex _cuse me_ , Dr. Lea," Riku said, folding his arms with a harrumph. "I didn't realize you were giving out free medical advice along with your Darkness rescues." He coughed roughly into his shoulder and shook his head. "It isn't a big deal, okay? I'm used to it."

"That still doesn't make it _okay_ ," Lea said, waving a hand. "You've got a _fever_."

"Look, just don't tell Kairi, okay?"

Lea _stared_ at him, like maybe he had turned purple.

"I'm telling you you're running a fever, and your first instinct is 'don't tell my best friend'?" Lea threw both hands in the air. "I don't understand you at all sometimes."

"She'll just worry," Riku said, lacing and unlacing his fingers together. "I can't do anything about it anyway, right? It's just gotta run its course, so worrying Kairi about it won't help."

"Fine," Lea said, wagging a finger at him, "I won't tell her, on _one_ condition."

Oh, Light, this was not going to be fun.

"What condition?" Riku asked, swatting at Lea's hand again.

"You take it easy." Lea folded his arms over his chest. "Kairi's out all day," he said, "so _sleep_ or something."

"Sleep?" Riku shook his head. "You make it sound so _easy_."

"Fine, just _rest_ , then," Lea said, shaking his head. "I'll come tell you when she and Merida get back--she won't know a thing, okay?"

"Why are you so hung up on this?" Riku asked, frowning. "I told you, it's no big deal. I get sick sometimes, so what?"

"So it's my _fault_ ," Lea said, glowering at him. "If I'd just had my head screwed on right, you and Kairi wouldn't have had'a go out in the rain after me in the first place. I was stupid, and now you're the one paying for it, and that ain't okay."

Riku was quiet for a moment, just looking kind of confused. How was this Lea's fault? Lea wasn't the reason he had a shoddy immune system. This had happened because he just got sick too easily; it was bound to happen sooner or later anyway, right? Why was Lea even trying to take responsibility for it?

He shook his head. "I don't get you," he said. "This isn't your fault at all, I was probably due for a cold anyway."

" _Due_?" Lea boggled at him. "Your health isn't _the weather_ , Riku; nobody's ever _due_ to get sick." He made a frustrated noise, then held up one hand, three fingers lifted. "Three days," he said, and Riku tilted his head.

"What?"

"When we go back to the islands," he said, "you're gonna take three days off and just relax."

"Three _days_?" Riku looked appalled. He wasn't sure how he was going to relax for three _hours_ , let alone three days! "Lea, I can't--"

"No missions, no training, just you taking it easy," he interrupted, and then stuck his hand out like he expected Riku to shake on it. "Three days, and I won't breathe a word to Kairi at all. That's my one condition."

Riku hunched his shoulders and have Lea a surly look. "Three days without training, she's gonna _know_ something's wrong," he said, folding his arms with a huff. "I can't do it."

"Riku you can do _anything_ , come on."

Riku gave a start at that. He'd said it like it was so simple, like it was just the facts, and Riku didn't think that at all. He couldn't do just anything, no way! He wasn't that talented.

"Tell her you're doing a special assignment and you have to take a few days," he said, and then held up one finger when Riku made to protest. " _Aa_ \--it's not a lie. It's a special assignment _I'm_ giving you, and she doesn't have to know what it is."

Riku averted his eyes. How had he known that was what he was going to say? "Still feels like lying," he said stiffly.

"Well, it ain't lying," Lea said, shaking his head. "Trust me, I know about lying."

With a heavy sigh, Riku scrubbed at his face with one hand again. Part of him _did_ kind of want to go back to sleep--he was cold and he was exhausted, but he was used to just working through that. Was it really okay to just take it easy? What about training? What about Xehanort? He bet Xehanort never took a day off. Looking back up at Lea, though, he knew this wasn't really up for debate. Lea obviously knew how to drive a hard bargain, and he was driving one now. If he didn't go along, then he would definitely tell Kairi about it, and he really didn't want to worry her. Kairi always worried when he was sick--she'd made him soup before, and he hated being such an inconvenience. This was the better option, wasn't it?

"Ugh, okay fine, but... make it two days," he said, frowning.

"Riku, do we have to Rock Paper Scissors again?" Lea's tone was far more serious than his suggestion warranted. "How long are you usually sick?"

"Like a little more than a week," Riku said, something wary in his posture, like the answer might condemn him or something.

"Just take a few days to sleep it off and you'll shave that many off the whole thing, I promise," Lea said, shaking a finger at him. "You might be surprised at how much sooner you get over a cold if you just accept that you're sick and should be off your feet."

"No, that's..." he said, shaking his head, fisting his hands in the sheets where he sat. "I don't... know _how_ to just take it easy. Three whole days with no training and no missions, I'll go out of my mind!" He gave Lea a somewhat desperate look. "I'm being serious, okay? I'll... I'll try. I'll try and just take it easy, but three days is too much."

Lea stared him down for a good twelve seconds, then sighed and nodded, running a hand back through his hair in exasperation.

"All right, two days," he said, "but I'm not budging on that." He stuck his hand out again, and Riku stared at it a moment before he exhaled heavily and shook it.

"You can't tell my mom, either," he said, making a face. "She'll go all overboard and want to take me to a doctor or something."

Lea shook his head. "I won't have to tell your ma," he said, waving one hand. "Mothers know about these things instinctively."

Riku just groaned and buried his face in his hands. Why was Lea _doing_ this? He was perfectly capable of continuing to work with a cold, it was no big deal, he did it all the time. It was _just a cold_. "You know this is completely unnecessary, right?" he asked, his voice muffled through his hands, and Lea just sort of laughed.

"Friends do this sort of thing, too," he said, reaching out and ruffling Riku's hair with one hand. 

Riku waved him off grumpily, trying to muster a scowl, but he couldn't quite manage. This felt really different from the way his mother tended to fuss over him. Lea was worried, and he could see that, but he wasn't being overbearing. It was strange, and not what he was used to at all. He lifted his head when he heard Lea shift to head for the door.

He leapt to his feet to follow him, prepared to make him pinkie promise on this (because that was the highest grade of promise, wasn't it? Kairi seemed to think so), but instead he stumbled. His head was swimming, and he sort of gasped as his knees gave out from under him, sending him pitching toward the floor. Lea moved so fast he didn't even see him, he just felt a strong hand catch him by the upper arm and halt his descent.

"You're not doing a very good job of resting, sport," Lea said grimly, and Riku just flushed with embarrassment (or maybe fever, or maybe both) and jerked his arm free.

"It's a promise," he said quickly, his lips a thin line across his face. "You can't tell Kairi _or_ my mom."

Lea just stood there and dragged his thumb in an X over the left side of his chest. "Cross my heart," he said, and that was good enough for Riku. He knew Lea had no intention of doing _anything_ to jeopardize his heart again, not even something as simple as breaking a heart-crossed promise. More than that, he had a distinct feeling that Lea just _didn't break_ promises. That was what he'd said to Kairi, right? That he didn't make promises he couldn't keep? Lea crossing his heart might have been even _more_ binding than a pinkie promise.

"You gotta keep your end of the bargain, too," Lea reminded him, jerking his chin back toward the bed. "Go."

Riku all but _sulked_ as he returned to the bed, sitting down with a pointed harrumph. Seemingly satisfied, Lea nodded and headed out into the hallway, closing the door behind him. Riku could hear him whistling as he headed down the hall, and he flopped backward onto the bed with a baleful noise, covering his face with the pillow.

His clothes were dry now, at least, and if he had no choice (he had the feeling Lea was going to camp the hallway to make sure he stayed in here), he figured he might as well get a little more sleep. He really was pretty tired. He sighed heavily, coughing into one arm, and then just dragged the covers up around his neck, nestling into the bed and closing his eyes. He was _so_ going to get Lea for this later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year, everyone! thanks for sticking with me this long!


	18. Lightning and Sand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kairi asks for some advice.

Kairi gasped as the Keyblade was knocked from her grip, and she gave Lea a wide smile.

"Hey, you actually got that one fair and square!" she said, wringing one hand and then dusting her palms together.

Lea huffed indignantly. "You make it sound like I _cheat_ ," he complained, resting his blade against his shoulder.

"Well, I mean you've finally stopped holding back when we spar," she said, splaying her hand out and calling for the Keyblade to return. The flowery weapon shimmered away, then reappeared in her hand with a whooshing sound. Lea made a sibilant noise and shook his head.

"Man, I have _got_ to learn how to do that," he said.

"It's really not that hard," Kairi said. "Don't your other weapons come back to you?"

"Yeah, but it's a little different," he said. "They come back on their own when I throw them. If they get _stuck_ in something, I have to dismiss them and call them up again."

Kairi tapped her chin. "Just... think of how it feels when you're trying to summon your Keyblade," she said. "It's like that, only instead of calling it out of nothing, you're just calling it back to your hand from somewhere else."

"I guess that sounds feasible." Lea pressed his lips together and his eyes swung skyward in thought. "At least I can get the damn thing to _come_ these days."

"You've gotten much better," Kairi said with a grin. "Gold star for you."

Lea dismissed his Keyblade and wagged a finger at Kairi. "Okay, I won that round, so it's time for some magic," he said, and Kairi's shoulders sagged.

"Do we have to?" she asked, and Lea gave her an unimpressed look.

"Princesses don't whine."

"Mehh," Kairi said in response, dismissing her Keyblade and folding her arms. She was still so _bad_ at magic. Lea's help had been invaluable, yes, but she still couldn't Cure her way out of a papercut, and she'd found that she had absolutely no talent for Blizzard spells at all. At least Lea couldn't give her a hard time about that-- _he_ was bad at Blizzard, too! She popped her hip and gave Lea a look, then glanced over her shoulder, her brow furrowing. "Is Riku really not coming today?" she asked. It was so strange to be working without him.

Lea waved a hand.

"I told you: he's got a special assignment," he said. "He'll be back in another day or so, so don't worry."

"I'm not worried," she said quickly. She _was_ worried. "I know Riku can take care of himself."

Lea snorted a laugh. "Are you kidding? No he can't."

"Lea, be nice."

"I'm just being honest," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Sure, he's really strong in a fight, but he's really bad at _taking care_ of himself. He does't even know how to take a _break_."

Kairi quirked her mouth to one side. "I guess you have a point," she said, and Lea nodded firmly.

"That said, though, I'm sure he's all right," he said, making a rolling motion with one wrist as if to hurry Kairi up. "Whatever this secret assignment is, he'll probably pass with flying colors, like with everything else he does."

"Except taking breaks," Kairi snickered.

"Except taking breaks," Lea agreed. "Okay, enough chit chat. You need to work on some Thunder." He held one arm up, shielding himself. "Try to hit less _me_ this time. Working with Larxene was bad enough--I don't need to get electrocuted by every woman I deal with."

"All right, okay," she said, waving her hands. "I'm sorry I zapped you last time; it really was an accident."

Lea blew a raspberry. "It's fine, princess, I'm not actually angry about it," he assured her, and Kairi smiled faintly. Lea dragged his foot through the sand, drawing an X there and then immediately making a face and smearing it out. "On second thought..." He drew a circle instead, and Kairi laughed softly. She guessed she could understand his not wanting to see the letter X ever again. "There we go," he said, pointing at the circle. "Just try and get it in the circle. Don't worry about how strong it is, just worry about accuracy for now."

"Okay," she said, and exhaled softly. 

Okay, she was going to get it right this time. She closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to conjure the feeling of lightning. She remembered storms on the islands when they were young, how she had been frightened of the thunder, the way the lightning had danced across the sky like a great glowing spiderweb. She remembered the way Sora and Riku had sat with her under the blanket on Sora's bed, holding her hands until the thunder quieted. She wasn't afraid of thunder or lightning anymore, but remembering that which she'd overcome was still important, right?

She imagined the way the hairs on her arms stood on end when a storm was coming, and remembered the smell of ozone in the air. Holding her hand out, her eyes still closed, she imagined a single shaft of lightning, bright blue-white against a dark sky. Blue-white, like the color of Riku's hair. Riku... She really did wonder where he was. She wasn't quite buying Lea's story that he was on a special assignment--why hadn't he told her himself? Why had he told _Lea_ but not her? Something just didn't add up.

More than that, she was kind of worried about the way she _felt_ right now. She'd been doing a lot of thinking on what Merida had said, about what it meant to really love someone, and she still didn't have the answers she wanted. She didn't know how to define what she felt for Riku, _or_ for Lea, and it troubled her. Did she _need_ to define it, though? Weren't emotions by nature intangible and difficult to really pin down? Why did she need to have all of this in a nice neat box in the first place?

No, focus! She had to focus on magic right now. Spreading her fingers, she opened her eyes.

" _Thunder_ ," she said softly, and then yelped when a bolt of electricity came down from above and zapped her squarely on the hand. She let out a cry of pain and recoiled, staggering backward and clutching her hand against her chest.

"Whoa, are you okay?" Lea darted forward and reached for her hand, but she turned away from him, scowling.

"I _told_ you, I'm just _bad_ at magic," she said sharply, cradling her hand and feeling really stupid. Why couldn't she get this right? Why couldn't she get _anything_ right? She was never going to get the hang of this, was she?

"You're not _bad_ at it, you're just unfocused," Lea said, shaking his head and folding his arms. "You did the spell just fine, it's aim you need to work on." He narrowed his eyes a little. "What's got you distracted?"

"Does it matter?" she asked, rubbing the back of her hand. It stung! "If I can't get it right when we're just practicing, how am I gonna get it right if we're actually in a fight for our lives?"

"Don't you think I wonder the same thing?"

Kairi froze, then glanced back at Lea with a frown. He had unfolded his arms and they were stiff at his sides, his hands clenched into tight fists and his expression fierce.

"I can get the Keyblade to come to me when I call it now, but knocking yours out of your hand was sheer dumb luck," he said. "You're _good_ with the Keyblade, it suits you. Me, I'm still all thumbs, I don't even have the benefit of beginner's luck. Don't you think I wonder every damn day why you and Riku bother trying to help me get better at it?"

"Lea..." Kairi shook her head. She hadn't really thought about it that way. She and Riku had been helping Lea to be more adept with his Keyblade all this time, and she knew he didn't have a lot of confidence, but she'd never considered that he wondered why they _bothered_. Of course they bothered! It wasn't even a bother! She knew he had a lot of potential, he just needed to work on it, right?

She hadn't extended herself the same consideration. Kairi had never been as fast or as strong as Sora and Riku were, and though she knew they didn't think less of her for it, she was hard on her _self_. She had started wondering if she would _ever_ catch up to them, if she would _ever_ be of use to them. Of course she'd never thought the same thing of Lea, but it seemed this insecurity was something they shared.

"Practice is the _only_ way you get better at something," he said. "I hate it, too, I wish I could just _be good_ at stuff without all the time wasted in between getting it right, but that ain't how it works." He folded his arms again, sort of glowering at her. "So why don't you tell me what's on your mind so you can get it off your chest and get your head back in the game?"

Kairi rubbed her hand again, and Lea gave a sigh before casting a low-level Cure spell on her. She frowned, looking a little flustered, then met his eye.

"Well... you're an adult, right?" she asked, and Lea arched one eyebrow.

"That depends on who you ask," he said dryly.

She shook her head. "No, I mean... I think I just need some advice." 

"Advice?" Lea looked surprised, like maybe he couldn't quite believe she was considering asking _him_ of all people for advice. "Like _adult_ advice?"

She worried at her lower lip. "Er... no, never mind," she said quickly, shaking her head. "It's okay, you don't have to--"

"Well, you didn't even _ask_ me yet," Lea said, making a face. "Maybe I'm not always the most mature of the three of us, but you can still _ask_ me. Come on." He turned and headed up the beach a little, beckoning her to join him. Sitting down on a big driftwood log, he waited for her to sit down beside him and then gave her a curious look. "What's going on?" he asked. "Do I need to set somebody on fire for you?"

"What? _No_!" She waved both hands frantically, then tugged at the hem of her skort. "No, I don't need you to set anyone on fire, oh my gosh." She looked at him, then looked at her lap, then exhaled audibly. "I've just been thinking a lot, lately," she said after a moment, and Lea put a hand on his chin, looking a little disproportionately serious.

"Yes, that'll get you every time," he said stoically, and she swatted at him.

"I'm being serious, here," she said, but couldn't help grinning. "I've been thinking about... how things change."

"Change?"

She looked thoughtful, tapping her lips with her fingertips, her brow furrowed. "I mean... I've changed a lot, you know?" she asked. "Over the past couple years, I've changed a _lot_."

"Well, yeah, having your world fall to Darkness and getting kidnapped by nutcases'll do that to a person," Lea said dryly, and there was a kind of bitterness in his tone that made Kairi wonder just what laid in Lea's past. He tended to play off his pain and make jokes instead of admitting anything was wrong, but she still saw it, when a nerve had been struck. His eyes always skirted away to one side and he fidgeted with his hands when he was being insincere or holding something back.

"I don't mean that," she said, looking at him until he met her eyes. "Before everything happened, all I really wanted was to spend time with Sora and Riku. It didn't really matter so much where we went or what we did, I just wanted to spend time with them. I felt important when I was with them, like I really mattered."

"Good friends have that effect, I think," Lea said, looking a little puzzled, like he wasn't quite following where she was going with this.

"I didn't used to want adventure and excitement the way I do now," she said, looking down at her hands and lacing her fingers together. "I used to be satisfied with things the way they were. I thought that so long as Riku and Sora were around, it didn't matter what else happened." 

"What about the raft, and the fish and coconuts?" Lea asked, seemingly genuinely curious rather than just teasing about the subject.

"Mm..." She shook her head. "It just sounded like fun," she said. "The boys were the ones who wanted to see other worlds--Riku was so convinced that our world was just a tiny piece of something so much bigger, but... I didn't know what I thought, you know?" She looked at Lea, then looked out at the ocean. "I used to be satisfied with my world being smaller." She still didn't know where she'd been born, or who her parents were, still didn't have any idea where she'd come from or where she'd been before she was five, but it _mattered_ now. Kairi felt like she'd pried the lid off a box of possibilities and now she couldn't stop herself from pawing through it. "Now that I've seen the things that I've seen, though, I want to see more," she said. "I want to know _everything_."

Lea smiled a little. "Funny the way discovering how small you are in the grand scheme can make you want to see just how big that scheme really is," he said. "That's the difference between seers and doers: some people learn something and they're content with seeing and believing. Other people... they've gotta get out there and do it, or what's the point of learning it in the first place?"

She pressed her lips together and looked at her hands again. "I guess, the point I'm trying to make is... things change," she said. "Things change, and when _one_ thing changes, it makes you rethink how you look at everything else, too." She looked up at him and frowned a little. "I just... What do you do when... when your _feelings_ for somebody change?" she asked, the words all jumbled together as they cascaded too quickly from her mouth.

Lea looked surprised again. No, more than that, he looked dumbfounded this time, and he lifted both hands quickly.

"Whoa, easy there, princess," he said. "I am _not_ the guy you wanna be asking for advice about feelings. I haven't even had them _back_ for very long, remember?"

She tugged at her skort again, her lips pressed together in a grim line. "Well, you _asked_ what was on my mind, and this is it," she said, frowning at him. "I'm not sure if it's okay to feel the way I'm feeling."

"There's no okay or not okay," he said, shaking his head; "you just feel what you feel. Feelings don't care about right or wrong--that's morality, which is a whole other ballgame."

"But can't you feel stuff that's morally wrong?" she asked, making a bit of a face.

"You can have opinions that are wrong," he said, rubbing his chin and actually looking like he was thinking really hard about this, "and you can _react_ to feelings in a way that's wrong, but I don't think that the feelings themselves can be right or wrong. They're just... how you feel. And sometimes the way you feel changes when you learn new stuff, and there's nothin' wrong with that."

Kairi ventured a little smile. "See? You have good advice after all," she said, and Lea looked a little flustered by that. "Besides, you feel all kinds of stuff; you emote more than Riku does."

"That doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about," he remarked. Something like realization scattered through Lea's expression then, and his lips parted. He sighed quietly, giving her a little smile. "Okay, I get it," he said. "Look, you know Riku's crazy about you, right?"

Kairi's face turned pink, her fists tightening, but she nodded. "Y-yeah, I know," she said. "He thinks I don't know how he feels, but I do." That wasn't quite the issue she was having here, though. Ohh, she couldn't articulate this to Lea, it was just too awkward. She wasn't ready to talk about this. She shook her head fiercely. "This is just... complicated."

He made a raspberry sound. "Don't I know it," he said. "For a long time, I didn't even want to talk about being _friends_ with other people; being _more_ than friends?" He shook his head. "I dunno how that stuff works."

She furrowed her brow and stared at her hands, hunching her shoulders a little. Maybe this had been a bad idea. Talking with Lea was easy enough, but talking about _this_ was just impossible. She gnawed on the inside of her lip until it ached, and then inhaled to apologize for wasting his time.

"I think," Lea said before she had the chance, "that the trick to feelings is to not think about them."

She made a face. "Huh?"

He looked off and away from her, rubbing at the back of his neck. 

"When I was still getting the hang of getting my Keyblade to cooperate, Merlin kept telling me I was thinking about it too hard," he said. "I think that's a big part of my problem in the first place, is I try and make things make sense, you know? It's just how I'm wired; I need to have all the information and it needs to be in nice neat rows so I can plan my next move. So when the Keyblade wouldn't come, I just kept thinking of things I must have been doing wrong, or trying to think up new ways to _try_ and get it to come to me. I was thinking so loud I'd stopped listening."

Lea hefted a sigh and shook his head then, frowning.

"So maybe you're wired like I am," he said. "Maybe you're so busy trying to logic your problem away that you make it worse."

Kairi thought on this a moment, then pressed her lips together.

"I do want a _reason_ for things," she admitted, nodding. She hated to be given 'because I said so's, and it really bothered her when she couldn't figure out _why_ something had happened. She was perceptive and good at reading people, a lot like Lea was, she supposed; maybe he was right.

"Trouble is, feelings kind of go against logic a lot of the time, right?" he asked, jarring her out of the very contemplation that was the topic of the discussion. "So maybe the trick is to stop trying to get them to make sense. Even when I wasn't supposed to be able to feel stuff, I..." He hesitated, and there was suddenly a far-off look in his eye, like he had been reminded of something very sad. He shook his head quickly and the look was gone, and he caught his fingers in the front of his shirt. "I remembered," he said finally, "what it was like to feel things, and in the end maybe that wasn't so different from feeling them anyway. The problem was I thought about it too hard. I kept trying to convince myself I was't feeling _anything_ , and I kept trying to determine where the _mistake_ was, and maybe I should have just taken it--the feeling, or the memory of it, or whatever it was--maybe I should have taken it for whatever it was and left it at that."

"So you're saying not to _think_ so much, just to... feel and see what happens?" she asked, and he nodded.

"I'm saying I still dunno what I'm doing, and maybe I never will," he said, "but when you stop and think too much about something, it doesn't really give you much but a headache."

Kairi let this sink in for a moment, just staring at the backs of her hands. Maybe Lea was on to something after all. She had known for a long time that Sora and Riku were more than just her friends. She _loved_ them, even if she wasn't sure how to define that love, or what predefined box that love fell into. Maybe the problem was with the predefined boxes. Maybe she just needed to stop worrying about how to describe what she felt to other people and worry about feeling it for herself. 

"Was that 'adult' enough?" Lea asked when her silence stretched out, and she gave a start, then looked at him.

"Yeah," she said with a nod, and then smiled. "Yeah, that was... actually very adult. Thank you, I think that really helps me a lot."

"... Wait, really?" he asked, and then grinned. "Well, _good_. I guess sometimes I _can_ give good advice."

Kairi laughed and got back to her feet.

"I'm surprised, too," she said, and Lea gave her an exaggerated look of indignation.

"Wow, rude," he grumbled, standing up and dusting his backside off.

She hid another laugh behind her hand, shaking her head. Lea was better at a lot more things than he seemed to think he was; he was a good friend, and a pretty good teacher, and it seemed he had some good advice, too, even given his relative clumsiness with the subject matter. She probably _had_ been thinking too hard about this, so maybe all she needed to do was _feel_ it instead of wondering if it was a mistake, like he'd said.

That in mind, there was something she'd been meaning to do for a while anyway, and it seemed as good a time as any. She folded her hands together behind her back and fixed Lea with a thin smile.

"I don't think I ever thanked you," she said.

Lea gave her a funny look. "Thanked me? For what?"

"For what you did for me in the castle," she said. "And for what you did for Sora."

Lea's expression sort of bottomed out, his jaw sliding ajar and his eyebrows shooting up toward his hairline. He looked absolutely confounded, and Kairi shyly tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

"I know you blocked Xehanort's attack from reaching him," she said. "Riku told me, when he came to get me for Keyblade training, he told me everything."

"Ev... everything?" he echoed. "How much is everything? I didn't think you knew... I..."

She looked up at him. "Sora told me how you sacrificed yourself to help him come find me," she said, and Lea averted his eyes, looking a little abashed. "He told me you used all your power to get rid of those Nobodies, and that you opened up a portal that would take him to the castle." She shook her head. "He told me you... apologized."

"Look, Kairi, I--"

"I almost didn't believe it," she said, interrupting him. "I didn't think you were as bad as you wanted everyone to think you were, but I could hardly believe you willingly sacrificed yourself for Sora." She shook her head, her hands clutched near her heart. "It... was too sad."

He blinked, like that wasn't what he'd expected her to say.

"I know you just wanted to find Roxas," she said quietly, "and it was too sad to think that you'd died without doing that."

Lea pulled at the back of his neck and took a halting breath. "I didn't _just_ do it for Roxas," he admitted, and she met his eye. He looked a little flustered. "I did it because for the first time in... maybe ever, I just wanted to do what was _right_. I had nothing else to lose, you know? So I wanted to do whatever it took to set as much right as possible." He flapped one arm kind of uselessly at his side. "It wasn't much, but... it was all I had to give."

"It was plenty," she said. "And then you saved Sora again. You told Riku you would help him if the Darkness became too much for him. Lea, I know you're still trying to figure out your heart, and I know you don't always think you belong on this team, but... you _do_." She smiled at him. "You were badly wounded trying to free me, you risked everything to help Sora, and Riku and I are grateful for all your help." She reached out and took his hand in both of hers, squeezing it softly. "Thank you," she said, "for watching out for my friends. And me."

Lea's face had turned kind of red, and he was fidgeting with his hair, and Kairi had to laugh. He tried so hard to look cool and act aloof, but he really was easily flustered when anyone gave him a compliment.

"D... don't mention it," he muttered, and then waved a hand at her. "Ahh, look, now I'm all embarrassed--we were having a nice talk and then you had to go get sentimental on me."

Kairi laughed softly. "You're the one who can't seem to handle a little sentimentality," she teased, and he swatted at her. "Stop denying it: you're sweet."

A sudden look of confusion streaked across Lea's face at her words, like they'd triggered a memory buried somewhere in the back of his head and he had tripped over it. He shook his head quickly to clear it, then gave her a long-suffering smile, the strange expression gone as soon as it had appeared.

"You're just saying that 'cuz you wanna suck up to your magic teacher," he said.

She looked a little guilty. "Well, maybe a little," she said. "That's not the _whole_ reason, though." She dragged her thumb in a cross shape over her chest. "Cross my heart."

Lea just laughed, shaking his head. Kairi stepped closer, venturing a genuine smile up at him.

"On that note, though... can I try Thunder again?" she asked, and Lea nodded.

"Sure, sure," he said, pointing back toward the circle he'd drawn in the sand. "I got all day."

Two hours and three ethers later, she had only zapped Lea once. She had finally managed to get the lightning strikes in the general vicinity of the circle, and she was sure she'd get it this time. Taking a deep breath through her nose and exhaling through her mouth, she held her hand out and made a fist with her fingers.

" _Thunder_!" she whispered, snapping her hand open, and Lea let out a whoop as the bolt landed smack in the center of the circle, leaving a little curl of smoke in its wake. She jumped up in the air and gave him a broad smile. "Ahh! I did it!" she cried, and Lea held out his hand for a high five.

"You did it," he said as she smacked his hand heartily. "That was a really good one, I think you've finally got it." He turned one of his pockets inside out. "Just as well, too; I'm out of ethers."

"Well, they don't taste very good anyway," she said, sticking her tongue out.

Lea dropped to a crouch then, brushing the sand away from the circle, and Kairi tilted her head curiously.

"What are you doing?" she asked, crouching down beside him.

"The coolest part about lightning and sand," he said, reaching down and pulling at something that appeared to be buried in the circle, "is what's left behind."

"Behind?" she asked, and then her lips parted in surprise at what Lea had in his hands.

"Glass," he said, dusting the chunk of grainy lightning glass off and then handing it to her. "Lightning burns hot enough to melt the sand into glass, so when you've got a strong enough Thunder spell, sometimes you can get the same results."

He handed it to Kairi, and she held it gingerly in her hands. It looked kind of like a piece of coral, and she ran her fingertips over it. It was rough on the outside, but it was hollow and smooth where it was fused on the inside, still warm to the touch.

"Wow," she said. "I didn't know."

"Now when Riku gets back, you've got something to show him your progress," Lea said with a grin. "Really, magic is kind of like feelings, too. If you think about it too much, it just doesn't work right."

"So I've just gotta _feel_ it," she said, and clutched the glass tightly in her hands. Getting back to her feet, she nodded firmly. "Thanks, Lea, you're a good teacher."

Lea stood up and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "You're, ah... you're welcome," he said. "You're a pretty good student. Your magic is really strong, Kairi; all you need to do is channel it the right way."

"By feeling, not thinking," she said, and he nodded. "I think I finally understand."

"Good," he said, clapping her on the shoulder. "Whaddaya say we go get some ice cream, then, to celebrate?"

Kairi laughed quietly. "You and ice cream," she chuckled, shaking her head hopelessly. She slid the little piece of glass into her pocket and smiled up at Lea. "I'd love some," she said. "Twilight Town?"

He nodded. "Twilight Town," he said.

"Race ya to the train!"

"Hey--no fair!"

Her feet sliding in the sand, Kairi took off running as fast as she could. It was funny the way answers seemed so simple after the fact. If all she had to do was _feel_ , and there _was_ no right or wrong way to feel, then maybe this wasn't such a problem after all. Whether it was magic or feelings, Kairi decided that she wasn't going to let logic get in the way of what she wanted anymore. She'd spent too much time listening to what other people thought was right; it was time for her to let all that go and do what _felt_ right.

Suddenly that didn't seem so hard after all.


	19. Crossed Lines

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a misunderstanding.

Lea had gotten lost in Riku's house exactly twice. Well, there were just so many rooms and hallways--he'd gotten completely turned around on the second floor that one time, and the other time it had been the middle of the night, so that didn't even count. He still wasn't really sure why anybody needed a house this big in the first place; it just seemed like a lot of unused space, in his opinion.

He was still getting used to room and board, for that matter. It was a bit strange to him yet, sleeping under someone else's roof like this. Certainly he appreciated the hospitality, but he wasn't _used_ to it. The Organization hadn't offered much in the way of benefits, as it were; their rooms in the castle had been little more than sleeping space, and there'd been hardly any privacy. Here, in this house, Lea had been treated like he _belonged_. He and Riku hadn't been home for dinner but a few days, thanks to their missions keeping them busy, but the nights they had been back on the islands, Lea had been invited to the table and fed like one of the family, and it was _weird_. Good weird, but weird all the same. It had seemed pretty weird for Riku too, honestly. It wasn't hard to tell that Riku wasn't terribly close with his family: he avoided their eyes and questions, evaded attempts at hugs, and spoke in short, clipped, if polite phrases. Lea made no presumptions as to what was going on--it wasn't his place--but he did wonder what had happened to make family affairs so awkward and uncomfortable for him.

For the moment, however, he was more interested in making sure Riku was upholding his end of their bargain. He had redirected all of Kairi's inquiries as to his whereabouts and managed to keep her off his trail quite well so far, so he had to ascertain that Riku was actually taking it easy. As he and Kairi had agreed, Riku was _terrible_ about taking breaks; for all Lea knew, he could have been practicing Keyblade forms in his room all day or something, and that was _not_ part of the deal. Sneaking down the hallway by Riku's room, he paused in front of the door and pressed his ear to it. He didn't _hear_ anything inside... Pressing his lips together, Lea reached up and knocked softly on the door. If Riku was awake, he would hear it, no matter how quiet it was, Lea was sure.

After a moment with no response, Lea reached for the door handle. Hey, it wasn't breaking and entering if he didn't actually _go in._

"Riku?" he called quietly, cracking the door. The light was out, and there was a human-shaped lump on the bed, and Lea almost couldn't believe his eyes. Well, he'd be damned; it seemed Riku was taking this agreement seriously after all! With a grin, he pulled the door closed and silently latched it--

"He's sick, isn't he?"

"Yaugh--!" Lea clapped both hands over his mouth to silence the yawp of alarm when a voice piped up out of nowhere. He whirled and came face to face with Riku's mother, who had a cup of coffee in one hand where she stood not four feet from him. Where had she come from? How had she snuck up on him like that?! He was an _assassin,_ for crying out loud, how had this completely mundane woman gotten the drop on him?

"Sorry," Hanako said, smiling a bit sheepishly, her voice soft, "didn't mean to startle you."

"Does your family have a history of being ninjas or something?" Lea gasped, a hand over his heart, and Hanako hid dainty laughter behind one hand.

"All mothers are secretly ninjas," she assured him, and Lea just kind of wheezed. "You didn't answer my question," she said then.

Lea rubbed the back of his neck. "Well..."

"It's all right," she said, taking a sip of her coffee. "I know he wouldn't want me to know. He never tells me anything anymore."

Lea was torn between feeling guilty, like he'd cheated on the agreement (hey, he'd _said_ that mothers just knew these things; Hanako's not knowing hadn't _been_ part of the deal), and feeling a little sorry for her (because he certainly understood what it was like to have someone you care about cut you out of the loop).

"It's nothing serious," he said honestly.

"I'm impressed," Hanako said, giving Lea a soft smile over the lip of her coffee cup. "How did you get him to take the day off? I haven't managed in years."

"He made me swear not to tell Kairi," he said, folding his arms, "so I made him swear to take two days off."

Hanako's perfect eyebrows shot up. "Two days? Goodness, it seems you drive a hard bargain."

"I can be very persuasive," Lea said with a judicious nod.

"Want a cup of coffee?" she offered, gesturing toward the stairs, and Lea hesitated, then nodded.

"Sure," he said. It was probably better to talk downstairs instead of the hallway, anyway. He didn't know if Riku's tendency to be a light sleeper was counteracted by having a cold or not, but he didn't want to wake him up.

The kitchen was immaculate, as usual, and Lea spun a chair around to sit backwards at the little table in the corner. Hanako poured him a mug of rich black coffee, then made an inquiring noise as she gestured to the fridge.

"No milk, lots'a sugar," he said, grinning, and she just laughed, moving to the table with the entire sugar bowl.

Once his coffee was teeth-rottingly sweet, Lea sipped at it with his arms folded on the back of the chair, and Hanako sat down adjacent to him, tucking her ankles neatly beneath the chair.

"Did he just overwork himself again?" she asked, and Lea furrowed his brow. Hanako examined her mug briefly, then looked up at him. "When he was little, he got sick a lot because he just didn't know when to stop," she explained. "He's always gotten sick easily, so when he didn't get enough sleep, or if there was an unseasonable cold snap, he'd come down with something, like clockwork." She smiled a bit, something almost nostalgic in her expression. "I guess it's just thin island blood," she said; "he never had much of a tolerance for low temperatures."

Lea frowned a bit. "It's kinda funny," he said. "Not like 'haha' funny, of course, but... He's tough as nails, for the most part, you know? There's just an irony in this."

Hanako nodded. "There is," she said. "He never goes down without a fight, either, which in this case just makes things worse."

"No kidding," Lea said, rolling his eyes. Riku would have just kept right on working right through the whole thing if Lea hadn't put his foot down. "Hopefully two days'll be enough."

"It's more than he usually gives himself," Hanako said, taking another sip of her coffee. "On that note, I actually wanted to thank you." 

Lea made a face. "'Scuse me?" What was with people and thanking him today? 

Hanako tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and met his eye. "For looking after him," she clarified. "He's been running off doing these training exercises of his for years now, but he always went alone before." She shook her head. "I worry about him, you know? But it's... easier, knowing he's got friends with him."

Lea's shoulders sagged a little. He hadn't really thought about what Riku's _family_ must have thought about everything that had happened. Of course he had to assume they had no idea what had _really_ happened; it seemed Riku had made up some excuse about training exercises, but... he'd been away from home for over a year, before now, hadn't he? That whole year after the debacle at Castle Oblivion, and the months that followed, had he even gone home once?

He supposed he had no room to find fault--he hadn't been home in over a decade. Radiant Garden had been restored, its people returned from the edge of nothing where they'd been trapped while the world was caught in limbo, but he hadn't gone home. How could he? How could he face his parents, having done the things he'd done? How could he face _Isa's_ parents? His time spent in Radiant Garden had been deliberately brief, and he had every intention of keeping it that way until he had righted the things he'd done wrong. He still had a lot of work to do.

He cleared his throat.

"Yeah, we make sure to keep him in line," he said finally, realizing he'd been quiet for a bit too long. "He works too hard, but Kairi and I try and shake him up sometimes, make sure he still smiles once in a while."

"Sora was always good at making him smile," Hanako said, her expression a little lonesome as she regarded her coffee. "Riku's father never liked Sora much, said he was foolish and a bit dim."

"Well, he's not wrong," Lea said mildly with a chuckle. Sora might have been a big damn hero, but nobody would have called him the sharpest tool in the shed.

Hanako laughed, then clicked her tongue. "While that may be true," she said, grinning a bit, "he had a way of making Riku seem... lighter. He's always been a very heavy person, do you know what I mean?"

"Too serious for his own good," Lea said with a nod; "yeah, I know."

"Even as a child he was serious and taciturn," she said, shaking her head, "and so competitive."

"Well, _that_ hasn't changed," Lea remarked.

"Sora brought out something in him I so rarely saw," she said, and Lea tilted his head a little. She met his eye. "He brought out the _child_ in him." She waved her hand. "I know he's all grown up now," she said. "He's a young _man_ , but... whenever he was with Sora, it was like he managed to go back in time, to when things were easier."

"I think Sora has that effect on people," Lea said, taking another sip of his coffee and then clasping it in both hands. "Don't worry; he'll be back soon enough."

Hanako shook her head again. "I'm not so worried anymore," she said, smiling at him. "I can tell you and Kairi have been good for him. I've stopped being hurt by his silence and started listening to it instead."

Lea made a questioning noise, not quite understanding, and she 'hmm'ed into her mug.

"I mean I've learned to hear what he's not saying," she said.

"Ah," Lea said. "Yeah, that's a useful skill with him."

"When he first came home, after being away training for so long, he was like a completely different person." She sipped from her mug again, then set it down on the table and pressed it between her hands. "He used to be so bossy, overconfident, even, but when he came home from that long trip he was so quiet and unsure of himself, almost... _weathered_ , like fabric that had started fraying at the edges. He acted like he was always walking on glass, like if he didn't watch his step everything would just shatter out from under him." She shook her head. "He would never tell me what was on his mind, but I knew he was worried about something. Something important."

Lea pulled at the back of his neck. He was _so_ not at liberty to talk about this. Riku would _murder_ him if he told his _mom_ about Xehanort and what they were really up to, what he'd been through. Plain old-fashioned Keyblade-to-the-face _murder._

"He's still worried about it," Hanako said, lifting her head and giving Lea a knowing smile, "but he worries less, now that he's got you and Kairi."

"Er..." Lea fidgeted with his coffee, not sure what to do with this compliment.

"So thank you, for looking after him," she said again, finishing her coffee and getting to her feet. She placed her mug in the sink and turned back to him. "Maybe I'll never know what he's really up to," she said, "but so long as he's got people he can depend on, I don't have to worry about him so much."

Lea shifted a bit where he sat, a little embarrassed. Certainly he loved being the center of attention, but he was usually putting on a show when that happened. This whole gratitude thing had him feeling kind of disarmed.

"Would you take him something to eat later?" Hanako asked, and Lea blinked at her.

"Ma'am?"

"Well, I know he won't accept anything _I_ try and give him," she said, leaning against the counter. "He's convinced I just worry too much, and fussing over him never gets me anywhere."

Lea chortled. "I can't guarantee he'll eat anything _I_ take up there, either," he said, "but I'll try."

No matter what Riku thought he did or didn't deserve, Lea had to think that he at least owed him that much.

* * *

Riku's bedroom door was ajar when Lea returned to the hallway after dinner, a bowl in his hands. He knocked on the door and peeked through the gap.

"Riku?" he said. "Your ma asked me to bring you something to eat--are you playing chess with your _dog_?"

He nudged the door open and boggled at the scene before him. Riku's room was huge, with heavy curtains that shut out most of the light of the sunset except for a thin sliver of orange in the middle where they came together. The bureau was tall, made of dark wood, topped with a handful of childhood accolades cast in gaudy gold plastic and trimmed with striped ribbons. Riku was seated on the bed, looking a little too small for it somehow, with his legs folded up, and on the other side of the bed, across a mostly empty chess board, was a huge, shaggy grey dog. Lea had met Wallace back when Riku had first invited him to stay at the house, and he'd been elbowed fiercely for making a family resemblance crack. The resemblance was especially strong at the moment, given Riku's impressive bedhead.

Stepping into the room and examining the chess board, Lea gave Riku a puzzled look.

"Is the dog actually _winning_?" he asked, shaking his head. "Jeez, you really _must_ be sick."

Riku grinned. "What can I say?" he asked, and then cleared his throat. "Wallace taught me everything I know."

"That explains a lot," Lea said, setting the bowl down on the bedside table and watching as the dog sniffed at Riku's king before knocking it over with is snout.

"All right, fine, I give up, mercy," Riku said, and the dog barked cheerfully.

"And here I was thinking I'd play winner," Lea said.

Riku had started gathering up the chess pieces and then gave Lea a competitive look.

"You wanna play me?" he challenged, and Lea snorted a laugh.

"I'm not sure I could beat the dog." He shooed Wallace off the end of the bed and took his spot, though, folding his long legs up and draping his elbows over his knees. "But sure, I'll play you a match." He wagged a finger at him. "Don't think I'll go easy on you just 'cuz you're sick, though."

"I already lost to the dog," Riku said, shaking his head. "I'm not gonna lose to my own student."

It seemed Riku hadn't expected Lea to actually be _good_ at chess, though. Half an hour later, Lea called checkmate, and Riku looked peeved. He picked up one of the pawns and rolled it in his palm, then set it back down and shook his head. First Rock Paper Scissors, now this?

"How did I lose?" he asked quietly, more to himself than to Lea, he had to figure, and Lea shook his head.

"It's not a big deal, I'm good at strategy games," he said. "It's just a game."

"Easy for you to say," Riku said, frowning. "You beat me at everything."

Lea barked a laugh. "I'm sorry, what?" he guffawed. "I think the Keyblade Master just accused the Keyblade _Dunce_ of beating him at _everything._ "

Riku wasn't laughing. He just lowered his eyes and picked up one of the white knight pieces, glowering at it.

"Fine, you beat me at everything I actually _earned_ ," he amended sullenly.

Lea stopped laughing. Wait, what? That was... _what_? His jaw worked soundlessly a moment before he finally found his voice again.

"Riku, what are you talking about?" he asked, shaking his head. "Like Yen Sid would name you a master if you hadn't earned it..."

"Forget it," Riku snapped, coughing into his shoulder and then clearing his throat roughly. "Just forget it, it's..."

 _Not important,_ Lea supplied silently.

"You wouldn't get it," Riku said instead, and then fixed Lea with a dark sort of look. "What're you here for, anyway?"

Lea looked downright _offended_. "I'm here because you needed to _eat_ something," he said, gesturing at the bowl on the side table. "Your ma made soup, which is probably cold now, anyway. You haven't eaten anything all day, you know? _Aa_ \--it's tomato, not chicken; I didn't tell her you were sick."

It wasn't a lie, he _hadn't_ told her.

"Now whaddaya mean 'I wouldn't get it'?" he demanded, straightening his back where he sat, and Riku just made a frustrated noise, turning away and swinging his legs over the side of the bed, shoulders hunched. It was the most blatant and literal act of cold shouldering Lea could recall having been on the receiving end of since _Saïx_. He took a deep breath, held it a moment, then exhaled. Riku was sick, he told himself. Riku was sick and grouchy and wasn't really thinking about what he was saying. 

That was still no excuse. Not for this. Who the hell did Riku think he was? Hadn't he been paying attention?

"You think I don't understand what it's like to feel like you don't _deserve_ something?" he asked, closing his hand into a fist and thumping it against his knee. "I wasn't supposed to _get_ a second chance, Riku--I'm not supposed to _be_ here. Roxas and Naminé, _they_ should have been the ones to come back, not me, so don't tell me I don't get it. I _know_ how it feels to think somebody made a mistake in picking _me_."

Riku got to his feet and sort of wobbled away from the bed, looking as uncertain as he did unsteady. 

"Okay, sorry," he said, fidgeting where he stood.

Lea hefted a sigh. Okay, he really hadn't meant to yell at him. Even though he hadn't raised his voice, maybe that had been a little too harsh; Riku looked like he was just bracing for impact now, like he was worried the argument was going to get physical. He _did_ understand what it felt like to think you were just a disappointment, and Riku really should have known that, but he could cut him a little bit of a break. He obviously still felt pretty lousy.

"Riku, that doesn't mean it _is_ a mistake, okay?"

"Isn't it?" Riku turned and glared at him. "Some Master I've turned out to be. On half the missions we've been on, you and Kairi had to speak _for_ me because I just kept fumbling. That thief in the catacombs put one over on me when you saw through his plan, and now I can't even get _rained_ on without getting sick. I--I'm no good at _any_ of this!"

"Nobody's just automatically _good_ at everything," Lea said. "Charisma takes practice just like anything else--Kairi and I spoke for you because we're just more outspoken than you are."

"Glad we agree on _something_." Riku hunched his shoulders further, like he was trying to fold himself in half. "Me, being an ambassador to the worlds? What a joke." 

Lea made an exasperated sound that consisted largely of consonants.

"That isn't what I'm saying at all," he said sharply, and the dog whined quietly. Lea glanced at Wallace, who was standing near the foot of the bed, his tail barely wagging in what looked like encouragement to work this out. Lea grit his teeth. "Riku, I'm not gonna tell you it'll all be okay and you've got nothing to worry about--I'll leave cockeyed optimism to Sora--but you've gotta understand that nobody, not even you, gets everything right on the first try."

"I don't have the option of multiple _tries_ ," Riku said, meeting his eye and then looking down at his feet. "These missions are important; the fate of a--of a _world_ is in my hands every time we go and speak to someone, and I just wind up getting tongue-tied. What happens the next time somebody manages to pull a fast one on me?" He closed his hands around the bottom of his pajama shirt and twisted it in his fingers. "What if--" He looked up at Lea, then back down again, shaking his head. "What if somebody actually gets hurt?"

"Then you learn from your mistakes and you don't make them again," Lea said. "You can't take responsibility for everything that happens."

" _Somebody_ has to!"

Logically Lea knew that hadn't been a pointed remark. Logically he knew that Riku hadn't meant to imply that he _wasn't_ taking responsibility for his actions. _Logically_ , Lea knew that this whole stupid argument was only happening because Riku felt like crap and was testy and on-edge.

Lea could only take so much before he just threw logic aside.

"Fine," he said, getting to his feet, shaking his head. "If you wanna blame yourself for every little thing that goes wrong, you go right ahead." He made a sweeping gesture with both hands, like he was trying to clear the way for someone important to walk through. " _I_ can't tell you what to do, I'm just the lowly student, after all. So forget I said anything. Forget I said anything at all."

With that, Lea just stalked out of the room, leaving the door ajar behind him. He wasn't going to give Riku's victim complex the satisfaction of having a door slammed in its face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks as always to everyone for reading! i love hearing your thoughts so please don't ever hesitate to leave a comment. ♥ also many much thanks to Saree for being a great beta!


	20. Where There's a Word There's a Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lea is given a vocabulary quiz.

Riku felt awful. On one hand, he actually felt a lot better since having been strong-armed into taking a couple of days to rest and recuperate. On the other, Lea hadn't said two words to him since he'd stormed out of his room two nights ago. It was weird: Riku hadn't realized how much he'd grown accustomed to Lea's chatter until there was none of it, and everything was just too quiet. Adaptation was such a funny thing. Riku had spent so long on his own, watching Sora from the shadows, having no one to talk to but DiZ and Naminé (and DiZ had hardly been good at conversation) that at first Lea's tendency to just _talk_ had seemed grating and overloud, but now... He could have heard a pin drop in his room yesterday, and it had just been kind of eerie. Even if Riku had gotten used to being by himself for all that time, _loneliness_ was not something he'd ever enjoyed, and without Kairi's laughter and Lea's nattering, Riku had felt more alone locked up in his bedroom than he'd felt in a long time.

His two days were up, though, and it was time to get back to work.

What was going to happen with Lea? Was Lea even going to show up? How angry _was_ he? Brushing the back of his hair down and adjusting the collar of his vest, Riku frowned at himself in the bathroom mirror. He realized that for all he thought he understood Lea, he really didn't _know_ him all that well; he had no idea how Lea behaved when he was angry, aside from the fact that he'd removed himself from the argument and hadn't sought him out since.

Well, that wasn't _entirely_ true. He had still brought him something to eat yesterday. There had been a knock at the door, and when Riku had opened it there was just a plate sitting on the floor with meatloaf and potatoes on it. Maybe he didn't understand Lea _at all_. If he was so angry, why had he even bothered bringing him food? Maybe it was just because his mother had asked--Lea did seem to have an unexpected polite streak.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling, Riku prodded at his face a moment. He didn't look _too_ gaunt--he'd actually done a fair amount of sleeping during those two days. Lea had been onto something after all, it seemed, when he said that taking a couple of days would mean a quicker recovery.

Heading downstairs, he scarfed a yogurt in the kitchen, quickly excusing himself when his mother walked in to pour herself another cup of coffee. At least she hadn't asked what he'd been doing for the past two days. Had Lea thrown her off the trail as well? Now Riku felt even _worse_ somehow. He'd kept up his end of the bargain, of course, but it seemed like Lea had gone above and beyond, making sure to keep both Kairi _and_ his family otherwise occupied so nobody asked why he was locked in his room. The fight had been so stupid! He knew that Lea had only been trying to help. He hadn't _wanted_ to argue with him--Lea was his _friend_!--but Lea just hadn't understood where he was coming from.

Was that something to damage a friendship over, though? Ugh, he felt a little sick to his stomach. The last time he'd been at odds with a friend, everything had just gone horribly; he hated this, but he wasn't sure how to make it right. He wasn't even sure Lea would speak to him if he tried.

His surprise was visible when he jogged down the beach to see Lea and Kairi already there. So Lea had shown up after all? That was good, at least. Lea _was_ an adult; surely he was capable of putting personal feelings aside for the sake of something bigger and more important, right?

"Riku!" Kairi waved a hand over her head and hurried toward him, smiling brightly. "I missed you! How did the special assignment go? Was it top secret?"

"Something like that," he said, scratching his cheek. "It went fine, and I'm back now." He met her eye, then glanced past her at Lea. Lea caught his eye and quickly looked away, and Riku felt his heart sink. Some Master... he couldn't even figure out how to patch things up with his student. Clearing his throat, he looked at Kairi again, squaring his shoulders. "What are you two working on?"

Kairi spun away and dashed back to Lea's side, grabbing him by the arm and all but bodily _dragging_ him toward Riku.

"We've been working on magic while you were away," she said as Lea pinwheeled to try and keep his balance. "He helped me like all day with Thunder, and I finally got it right-- _look_!" She reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like a piece of coral. Riku furrowed his brow.

"I... don't get it."

"It's glass!" she exalted, beaming. "When lightning strikes sand, it can fuse it into glass, and I did a spell that was strong enough to do it!"

Riku found himself smiling--her enthusiasm really was kind of infectious. "That's great," he said, reaching for the glass and examining it a moment. It was hollow, fused smooth on the inside and grainy on the outside. How strange. "I didn't know that."

"I didn't either--Lea's just full of random trivia, isn't he?"

His eyes flicked to Lea again, who was pulling at the back of his neck in his usual slightly embarrassed by a compliment fashion. "He sure is," Riku agreed, his smile fading as he handed the glass back to Kairi.

_Come on, Riku,_ say _something,_ he thought. _Just apologize or something!_ That wouldn't be enough, though, would it? A simple 'I'm sorry' wasn't going to cut it. Besides, if he apologized then Kairi would find out he'd been here the whole time, and the entire plan would be blown anyway. Ugh, this was just terrible--he couldn't say a darn thing!

"Lea's been getting better at sparring, too," Kairi said then, and Riku snapped out of contemplation, focusing on her again.

"Has he?"

She nodded. "Mmhm! He actually disarmed me the other day."

"It was dumb luck," Lea said, pressing his lips together and scrunching his nose. "I'm still klutzy with the damn Keyblade. I'm starting to think I always _will_ be."

Riku shook his head. "That's ridiculous," he said, and drew his Keyblade from the air. "Show me."

If Lea showed up for training, Riku wasn't going to let a dumb argument get in the way of that. Maybe he couldn't fix this right now, but personal feelings were less important than being prepared for whenever Xehanort made his move, right? He could worry about patching things up with Lea later; if Lea had made progress while he was away, then he wanted to see it.

"What?" Lea held both hands up. "N-no way! Every time I spar with you I lose." There was a flicker of uncertainty across his face. "You beat me at everything," he said haltingly, and Riku felt something in his chest seize up.

Why had he said _that_? Was he trying to rub this in his face? No, he hadn't said it cruelly--Lea was many things, but Riku had _never_ known him to be cruel. He wasn't taunting him; was this an attempt at an olive branch, then?

"Come on, show him, Lea," Kairi urged, planting both hands on his side and giving him a shove in the ribs. "He'll be super impressed!"

Lea sighed, but dutifully drew his Keyblade. Riku was pleased to see he didn't struggle to get it to come to his hand anymore.

"I'm gonna suck," Lea warned him sullenly, and Riku shook his head.

"No, you're not," he said, and without waiting for Lea to respond, he brought his Keyblade down.

Lea blocked it easily enough, and there was a sharp sound as the two weapons met in the air. Kairi jumped back and moved to a safe distance where she could observe without getting in the way. Riku shoved Lea's Keyblade back and took a step forward.

"Your block is strong, but you always hesitate after that," he said, twisting and tapping Lea's side with the back of Way to the Dawn. "You've gotta strike as soon as your opponent's advance is stopped."

"I'm still not used to this both hands on one weapon gig," Lea complained with a huff, sort of shoving Riku's Keyblade away from him. "I always try and turn the wrong way into the block."

"Do it again," Riku said. "Don't lose your momentum when you make the block--keep moving forward and you'll turn the right way."

Lea nodded, and Riku swung his Keyblade again. Lea made the block and turned to his right, Riku's weapon sliding off his as he moved.

"There you go," Riku said, bringing his Keyblade around to block Lea's strike to his side. "I've seen you fight with your chakrams before--you never stop moving. It's like you're dancing. You've gotta do the same thing with the Keyblade. If you lose your forward motion, you'll get pushed back." He shoved Lea's Keyblade aside and twisted sharply, and Lea made a wordless frustrated noise when the little wing at the end of Way to the Dawn tapped against his neck.

"I _know_ ," he said, frowning. "You told me that _last_ time."

"Well, it's still true _this_ time," Riku said, sniffing and rubbing his nose. "You're still hesitating, like you're trying to remember what comes next, and it's--" 

He turned away suddenly and sneezed twice into the crook of his arm, then hunched his shoulders, looking a little abashed. Ugh, _really_? 

"Gesundheit," Lea said, shaking his head.

Riku sniffed, set his jaw, and swung his Keyblade again. Lea gasped sharply, snapping his weapon up and barely making the block.

"What does that _mean_?" Riku asked, and Lea quirked one eyebrow.

"What?"

"That word you just said, what does it mean?" Riku pressed his Keyblade forward, then turned when Lea shifted to twist away. "You said it when we were in the Fa family's gardens, too. What does it mean?"

"It's German," Lea said, turning and aiming for Riku's side. "Means 'good health', I think. You just say it when somebody sneezes."

Riku blocked his strike and shoved him backward. "You speak _German_?"

"No," Lea said, spinning to one side and driving his Keyblade forward again, "just that word. I heard it when I was on a mission once." He feinted to one side when Riku moved to block, then spun quickly and came from the other direction. "It just stuck with me."

Riku barely blocked that strike, his eyes widening a little. He hadn't expected him to redirect so quickly! Kairi was right: Lea _had_ gotten better. The problem was he was still _thinking_ about his movements too much. When he was distracted by Riku's questions, he moved more naturally. It wasn't that he didn't know how to fight with both hands on a single weapon, it was that he _thought_ he didn't know how. His footwork was fine, he knew how to _move_ , he just hesitated to strike because he was trying to remember specific forms!

Suddenly Riku knew exactly what he needed to do.

"Did all those other big words just stick with you, too?" he asked, and Lea made a face, taking a step back and turning to his left.

"I just happen to have an expansive vocabulary," he said, bringing his Keyblade down. "Why does it matter?"

Riku blocked the downward strike and pushed back, then made a horizontal swipe. "Tell me what they mean," he said as Lea blocked again and did a perfect turn into an angled slash. "Those other words you've used, that I didn't know what they were at the time, tell me what they mean."

"Is this a pop quiz or something?" Lea asked, jumping back when Riku snapped his Keyblade up to halt the strike. "I thought we were sparring."

"What's 'discretion'?" Riku asked, bearing down on him again, and Lea made a squawking noise as he barely blocked the assault.

"It's when you're careful to not get noticed," he said quickly, shoving Way to the Dawn aside and driving his Keyblade toward Riku's ribs.

Riku hopped backward and ducked low. "And ret... 'rhetorical'?"

Lea brought his Keyblade down sharply. "Something that doesn't actually require a response," he said, squinting one eye closed at the loud sound the two Keyblades made when they met fiercely. "Something that's said to make a point instead of actually asking a question."

"'Preclude'," Riku said challengingly, and Lea _growled_ at him over their crossed blades.

"What the hell is with the vocabulary lesson in the middle of a spar?" he demanded, shoving Riku backward.

Riku caught himself and spun his Keyblade around one hand. "You're _doing_ it, Lea," he said. "When you're thinking about something else? You're actually pretty good at this. You just keep tripping yourself up thinking too hard about the forms."

Lea froze, like he'd been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to, and gave Riku a startled look. Then he looked down at his hands around the hilt of his Keyblade for a moment, almost as if he didn't recognize them, before he looked back up at Riku. "I was...?"

Riku hesitated, glancing toward Kairi and then looking back at Lea. Kairi was out of earshot, right? If he said something to Lea now, she couldn't hear it, could she?

"You're not just a lowly student to me," Riku said softly, lowering his Keyblade and giving Lea an apologetic look. "You're an important ally--a _friend_ \--and I'm... sorry." He shook his head. "I'm sorry for what I said."

Lea stared at him for a moment before he sighed and shook his head. "I didn't _wanna_ argue with you," he said, "I was just kinda frustrated. You're too hard on yourself, that's all I was trying to say." He pulled at his neck and looked down at his feet. "I'm sorry, too."

"Less talking, more sparring!" Kairi called, startling them both out of their momentary stupor at the other's apology, and they both lifted their Keyblades again.

"I _do_ get it," Lea said, twisting and swinging his Keyblade wide from the right. It clattered against Riku's as he pressed forward. "I know you don't feel like you deserve what you've got. The trouble is, you don't _get_ to decide what you deserve."

"That doesn't mean it feels _right_ ," Riku said, digging his heels into the sand and twisting to one side quickly. Lea staggered forward, off-balance, and Riku thwacked the small of his back with the side of his Keyblade. "Never hold a block for too long," he said, "or someone will use it against you."

Lea's shoulders slumped a little, and then he turned and lifted his Keyblade again.

"It doesn't matter if it feels right," he said, shaking his head. "What matters is that it is what it is, and we just have to do what we can do make sure not to waste it." 

He dashed forward, and Riku anticipated his feint, but _didn't_ anticipate the way he ducked low. He gasped sharply when Lea snagged the loose cuff of his jeans with the hooked end of his Keyblade and _yanked_ , tugging his leg right out from under him and sending him plunging into the sand. He rolled to one side and was back on his feet in an instant, but there was a grin on his face. That had been really resourceful. It was almost kind of cheating, to be honest--that wasn't a move Riku would have ever thought to make--but he had to hand it to him: that was clever.

"Do I pass?" Lea asked, resting his Keyblade against his shoulder, and Riku nodded, dismissing Way to the Dawn.

"Yeah, you pass," he said, and that was when Lea did something he wasn't expecting at all: he _bowed_. It was quick and shallow, but there was no mistaking the gesture, and Riku just stared at him for a moment.

Lea grinned, then dismissed his Keyblade and gave Riku a little salute. " _Maestro_ ," he said with a nod, and then made an _oomph!_ sound as Kairi flung herself at him and squeezed him tightly around the middle. "Ka--Kairi what in--!?"

"That was _great_!" she said, releasing him and turning to Riku then. She grabbed his hands in hers and bounced where she stood, and Riku felt his face flush a little. "You were both awesome," she said, turning back to Lea without releasing Riku's hands. "I _told_ you you got better."

"Yeah, you did," he said, scratching the back of his head and shrugging one shoulder. "Maybe one of these days I'll start listening to you."

"Like you'll ever listen to _anybody_ ," Riku quipped.

"Oh, look who's talking," Lea sneered in retort.

"I'm the teacher, I don't have to listen to you," Riku said, and Lea just made a frustrated noise.

"That is _so_ not fair," he said after a moment's hesitation. Then he reached out and sort of jabbed Riku in the shoulder.

"Ow," Riku said flatly. "What wassat for?"

"To make impossible," he said, and Riku made a face.

"Huh?"

"'Preclude'," Lea said, glancing at Kairi before meeting Riku's eye. "It means, to make impossible. For example..." He held up one hand, his index finger lifted. "Not liking your _self_ doesn't preclude me and Kairi from thinking you're pretty okay."

Kairi tilted her head, apparently not quite sure what this was all about. "That's good advice," she said after a beat of silence, turning to give Lea a smile. "You're just full of that this week, aren't you?"

Lea chuckled and shoved both hands into his pockets. "I dunno about that."

Riku didn't say anything, just smiling a little. He felt like maybe he had come to understand Lea a little better, even if it had been kind of a painful lesson. He had known Lea was pretty easygoing, that wasn't hard to tell, but he hadn't expected him to be so quick to forgive. He had been an assassin, after all, part of a ruthless immoral syndicate that had actually treated him pretty horribly, so Riku had just expected him to be slow to forgive transgressions, even those that happened on account of an honest misunderstanding. Maybe he just hadn't been giving him enough credit--Riku had been treated pretty badly by a lot of people, too, and though he was confident he would _never_ forgive Xehanort for what he'd done, most other things? He could forgive pretty easily. Sometimes it seemed a simple 'I'm sorry' cut it after all, so long as it was sincere.

Maybe the teacher still had a thing or two to learn. Maybe the teacher and the student weren't so different as he'd thought. 

Maybe one didn't preclude the other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for over 2k hits! ;A; you are all wonderful, here is a chapter a bit earlier than i had planned to post it because you guys make me happy. thank you for reading!!


	21. Lost City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which everyone talks over Riku.

Kairi couldn't help being awestruck. She had waited two years to go on adventures the way Sora and Riku had, two _years_ spent cooped up on Destiny Islands (hey, the traveling she'd done as an unconscious lump didn't count, okay?), and now that she was seeing other worlds, she just couldn't help herself. Everything was new, everything was strange, and everything was absolutely beautiful.

As the train shimmered away, leaving the three of them standing on a cliffside surrounded by ancient stone towers and crystal clear waterfalls, Kairi just breathed this place in.

"Wow," she sighed, turning in a slow circle. "Just when I thought nothing could top The Highlands..." She looked back at Riku and smiled broadly. "Can you believe this place? It's amazing!"

Riku stepped up beside her and shaded his eyes. "Look at these old towers," he said. "They look _ancient_."

"Uh, guys?" Lea said. "Little help, here?"

Kairi turned to look at him as he sort of grunted and made a guttural noise.

"Lea, what are you _doing_?" she asked, watching as he flailed his arms in a shooing gesture, then made a sharp noise and stomped his feet. That was when she saw the odd little creature in front of him. It was small--maybe the size of a cocker spaniel--reptilian, with wings... it looked like a little pterodactyl or something, right out of the picture books Sora had loved so much when they were little. "Is that a _dinosaur_?" She wasn't sure if she was excited or alarmed.

"Lea, don't provoke it," Riku warned, and Lea sort of shook his foot at the creature, looking a little off-balance.

"I'm not provoking it," he insisted, making that shooing gesture again as the creature made a chirping sound at him, "I'm attempting to persuade it to vacate my immediate vicinity."

"Are we gonna have another vocab quiz?" Riku sounded unimpressed, and Lea backpedaled when the little creature crawled forward and sniffed curiously at his shoe.

"I'm trying to get it to leave!" Lea said, waving his hands. "It's looking at me funny."

"Probably because you're flailing around like a moron," Riku said.

"I know _I'm_ looking at you funny," Kairi added, and Lea shot both of them a glower.

"You know, _real_ friends would _help_ in this situation."

Kairi stepped forward with a scoff, dropping to a crouch near the little dinosaur and holding her hand out.

"Don't let it bite you," Riku said stiffly, and she frowned at him.

"Oh, so Lea gets to play with the dinosaur, but I don't?"

"Who's _playing_?" Lea demanded, folding his arms. "What if it had tried to eat me?"

Riku rolled his eyes. "Yes, I can see your tombstone now: Lea, Keyblade Wielder and Chameleon Chow."

"What if it breathed fire or something?" Lea asked.

"Lea, you _specialize_ in fire."

"That is _entirely_ beside the point."

"It's not aggressive," Kairi said as the creature sniffed her hand and blinked large black eyes curiously at her. "I think it's just checking us out." She watched in wonder as the little dinosaur spread its wings and flew away, seemingly satisfied with whatever it had found out about them. It was probably going to go tell all its friends about the strange creatures and their long flaily limbs.

Standing up, Kairi turned back to Lea and Riku and then looked out across the watery expanse before them. The world seemed largely comprised of water, with small, jungle-covered islands littered with stone formations. She couldn't see any sign of people anywhere, though.

"It looks kinda... deserted," she said, sounding a little disappointed.

"What'd Yen Sid have to say about this world?" Lea asked, folding his arms.

Riku shook his head. "Just that it's a civilization that hasn't had any contact with other worlds in a long time," he said. "He told me the tracks to this world weren't even in the record books. It's _that_ old."

"So how did he find it, if there was no record of it?" Kairi asked.

"He didn't say," Riku said, and Lea snorted.

"Typical," he said, rolling his eyes. "For an all-knowing wizard, he sure is stingy with answers."

"It doesn't matter how he found it," Riku insisted. "What matters is connecting this world to the others. If this place has been cut off for a long time, we'll have to be careful--the people who live here might not be willing to even talk to us."

"Are we even sure there's people?" Lea said, looking around. "Maybe there's only dinosaurs."

Kairi snickered. "What if the one you scared off was their king?" she asked, and Lea huffed.

" _Obviously_ the little flying one isn't the king," he said. "The king of dinosaurs is a Tyrannosaurus Rex--it's right there in the name."

"Well, if it _is_ a T-Rex, I'll let _you_ handle negotiations," Riku said, waving a hand and starting forward. "Come on, you two, I'm sure there's people around here somewhere."

Lea and Kairi followed him into the dense jungle beyond the clearing. The trees were old and bowed, their limbs heavy with moss and vines, and Kairi pointed when she spotted more reptilian creatures darting through the underbrush. She began to wonder if they actually _were_ dinosaurs. What _was_ this place?

She reached out to run her hands over the broad leaves of a low-set bush, rubbing it between her fingers, then just closed her eyes and listened for a moment. There were no birds here, it seemed; perhaps there were only the flying dinosaur creatures, so there was no birdsong to be heard over the rustle of leaves. Instead, there were strange trilling sounds and a peculiar sort of chatter that sounded completely alien to her. Everything about this place was strange in a wonderful way, and Kairi couldn't wait to explore it.

The rainforest opened into another clearing, and as Riku stepped out into the sunlight again, he shaded his eyes and peered into the distance.

"There," he said, pointing. "We're on the edge of a city, it looks like--see the buildings and the raised tracks? Looks like some kind of transportation network."

Kairi pulled her hair back into a ponytail and then jogged up alongside Riku to look. The water seemed to go on forever, vanishing into an undefined horizon that blended sea and sky together. There were many smaller islands adorned with stone structures and statues, and it looked like there was a great waterfall that split the ocean into two levels. That was when she noticed something: three dark specks against the backdrop of sky. They seemed to be getting larger...

"I see something," she said, pointing toward where the largest island rose away from the water. "Look, something's flying this way."

"More dinosaurs?" Lea asked, scratching one hand back through his hair, his other hand on his hip as he moved to Kairi's side. "Maybe the little one called for reinforcements."

"They look too big for that," Kairi said. "Look at how they move--like they're swimming in the air."

"I think they're _people_ ," Riku said, taking a small step back and then putting an arm up in front of Kairi. Before he could say anything else, though, the flying contraptions were upon them, and Kairi _marveled_. Riku was clearly apprehensive about this, but Kairi couldn't bring herself to be anything but amazed.

They were definitely people, riding on large fish-shaped vehicles that looked like they were made of stone. Stone! And yet they _flew_! The people wore large ceremonial masks that covered their bodies, decorated with fur and feathers, and Kairi could see intricate blue tattoos on their legs and arms. There were three of them, and each stone fish vehicle was unique--one of them looked almost like a manta ray.

The largest of the stone vehicles set down about five yards away, and the person piloting it stepped down, a spear in one hand. He pointed the spear at them and barked something in a language Kairi couldn't make out, and Riku's arm lifted in front of her again, pushing her back.

"Did you catch any of that?" Lea asked, and Riku shook his head wordlessly.

The other two stone vehicles set down and their riders dismounted, moving alongside their comrade with the spear. The man with the spear spoke again, more urgently this time, but Kairi couldn't understand a word he said. She glanced up at Riku, watching the tendons in his neck stand away from his skin like they always did when he was stressed out, and then she looked back at Lea. They both looked ready to pull out their Keyblades and duke this out, and it made her nervous. The man had a spear, yes, but he didn't sound _threatening_! She didn't think he wanted to hurt them. Riku had said this world had been cut off from the others for a long time; they probably just wanted to know where they'd come from.

Kairi threw her shoulders back. She wasn't going to let this turn into a fight when it didn't need to be. Stepping out from behind Riku's hand, she lifted both arms to show the strangers her palms, and then shook her head.

"We won't hurt you," she called, and Riku made a startled noise. She didn't look at him, instead focusing on the man with the spear. "We're travelers. Can you understand me?"

There was a pause, and the man lowered his spear and turned to his comrades, muttering something.

"Kairi, what are you _doing_?" Riku asked, giving her a worried look. "Didn't you hear them? They don't speak our language, they can't understand us."

"Actually, we can," the man with the spear said then, and Kairi blinked. He lifted his mask and inclined his chin a little, the spear at his side. His comrades removed their masks as well, and Kairi took a moment to be surprised. They all had silver-white hair like Riku's!

"Riku, I think we finally solved the mystery of your origins," Lea said dryly, and Riku made an impatient noise.

"There's no mystery to my origins," he hissed. "I was born on Destiny Islands."

"Are you sure about that? Maybe you were adopted," Lea said.

"I'm not that lucky," he grumbled. 

Lea made an _oof_ sound. "That's harsh, what would your ma think?"

"Would it kill you to be serious?"

"Dunno, I never tried."

Kairi ignored the boys' bickering and moved forward, dropping her hands to her sides.

"So, you can understand me after all?" she asked, and the man with the spear nodded.

"Yes, we speak many languages here," he said. "You say you are travelers--do you come from the surface as well?"

"Surface?" She glanced back at Riku, who still looked like he was really worried this could go south at any moment, and then looked back to the man with the spear. Setting her jaw, she squared her shoulders. She didn't need to wait for Riku's permission to speak, right? He was the teacher, but she was just as important to this diplomatic mission as he was; she could do this on her own. "No, we come from another world," she said. "We're here on a very important peaceful mission and need to speak to whoever is in charge."

"Another world?" The man's eyebrows lifted, and then he smiled, looking intrigued. "Very well, we will take you to the palace to meet with our queen."

"I'm not getting on a flying rock," Lea said, folding his arms. "Those things look shifty."

"It is a long way to swim, my friend," the man with the spear said, chuckling. He pointed with the spear to a particular structure on the largest island, towering high above the rest. "Are you certain you won't reconsider?"

Lea grimaced, then looked at Riku, who looked at Kairi, and Kairi looked at the man with the spear. She sensed no enmity from this man or his comrades, and believed that he would take them to see their queen as they said. There was nothing to be afraid of, right? She nodded at Riku, then stepped forward.

"Yes, please take us to your queen," she said, and the other two men broke away to move back to their vehicles. Riku hesitated, then followed one of them, before Lea just let out a groan and followed the other.

* * *

The throne room was a huge open space, with stepping stones across a pool of water and a raised platform in the center. Queen Kida was as beautiful as Kairi had imagined, though she hadn't expected her to be quite so animated. She had welcomed them eagerly, and her enthusiasm was dwarfed only by the fervor of her husband Milo.

"So you three are actually from a whole other _world_?" He ran a hand back through his hair and adjusted his glasses, looking way too excited about this prospect, and Kairi decided right then and there that Milo would have gotten along with Sora very well.

"Yes," Kairi said with a broad smile. "We've been traveling to other worlds on a mission of peace. We've been trying to connect the worlds using an old transportation system, and we hope that you'll help us continue that mission."

The queen seemed just as curious, a bright smile lighting up her face as she stood beside Milo, her snowy-white hair soft around her shoulders and cascading down her back.

"We will help however we can," she said, and then looked from Kairi to Riku and back. "What must we do?"

"We just need to know that this world is safe from the Heartless," Riku said. "Then we can reopen the tracks to allow access to this world again."

Kida furrowed her brow. "'Heartless'?" She shook her head. "I do not know of such a thing. Surely our world is safe from something I have never heard of."

Riku lifted a hand to try and explain further, but Kida waved her arm and then shook a finger at him.

"Now I have a question for _you_ ," she said, and put her hands on her hips. "How many other worlds _are_ there?" she asked. "How many have you _been_ to?"

"Riku's been to more than I have," Kairi said, folding her arms with a harrumph, "and I think Lea's been to even more than _he_ has."

"You'll get your chance, Kairi," Lea said, shaking his head.

"We don't actually know just how many worlds there are," Riku said, no-nonsense as usual. "We've been to several on this mission of ours, but I don't know that anyone could visit every world there is. About the Heartless, though--"

"And this mission of yours," the queen interrupted, rolling the words around her mouth like she wanted to taste them, "is to connect worlds to one another?"

"That's right," Riku said, looking a little exasperated. "There are tracks that connect every world to any other world, but they were closed down long ago, when a threat to all worlds was discovered."

"So now that this threat has been eliminated, you wanna reopen these tracks," Milo concluded, turning to look at Kida. 

"We need to make _sure_ the threat is eliminated," Kairi said.

"And then Atlantis would be able to connect to all those other worlds?" Milo asked.

"You wouldn't just be able to travel between worlds all willy-nilly," Lea said, shaking his head. "Until the people of all the worlds can be united again, we still have to maintain separation between them." He shrugged one shoulder, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Who knows when _that'll_ happen."

"So these tracks, what purpose do they serve, then, if not to allow travel between the worlds?" Kida asked, and Riku sighed softly.

"It's really just for people like us--Keyblade wielders--to get here and back," he said.

"And what are these 'Heartless' you mentioned?" Kida asked.

"I've been _trying_ to--"

Kida turned to Milo then, seeming not to hear Riku speak. "Is this something you have heard of?"

Milo shook his head. "No, this is all news to me," he said, turning to Riku. "What kind of creatures are they?"

Kairi frowned. "They're the shadows of people who have lost their hearts to Darkness," she said, and Riku just sort of sagged where he stood. "They prey on others, trying to steal _their_ hearts from them, and if they manage to overrun a world, the whole thing could be lost."

"I have never heard of such creatures," Kida said again, a hand on her chin. "However, I _do_ know of another traveler who came to this world, who claimed to be from another."

Kairi blinked. "Another traveler?"

"Who?" Riku asked, looking startled. Kairi exchanged a curious look with him, shaking her head. Had another Keyblade wielder visited Atlantis?

"It was about ten years ago," Kida said, tilting her head, her eyes taking on a far-off look. "My father was king, then, and he was very suspicious of outsiders. The traveler was a young woman, with hair blue as the sea. She, too, claimed that she wanted to protect this world from Darkness."

A woman with blue hair? Kairi couldn't think of anyone matching that description, but she didn't know how many other Keyblade wielders there might _be_ out there. Had she been a Keyblade wielder at all? She frowned at Riku, whose eyes had gone narrow. He looked like he was trying very hard to remember something.

Her hand had unconsciously moved to the pendant around her neck, and she rubbed her thumb over it with a frown.

"So what happened?" Lea asked when the silence stretched out a moment too long, and Kida shook her head, lifting her hands.

"I do not know," she said. "My father told her she had to leave, and I was ushered out of the throne room in a rush."

"Do you remember her name?" Riku asked, and Kida shook her head again.

"I did not hear her name," she admitted. "I came into the throne room halfway through the conversation; my father was very upset that she was here. He did not trust outsiders at all, but I was curious." She gestured vaguely. "I only saw her once more, as she was leaving. She had a... a weapon of some sort, that resembled a great key."

"A Keyblade?" Lea's eyebrows shot up, and he looked at Riku. "Sounds like maybe we need to ask Yen Sid for a roster of Keyblade wielders."

"No kidding," Kairi said, looking surprised. "If there are other Keyblade wielders out there, shouldn't we be working with them?"

Riku frowned, a hand on his chin, but said nothing. He still looked like he was trying to remember something, something perched on the tip of his tongue.

"Her weapon turned into a vehicle, much like the ones our people use," Kida said, spreading her arms out to her sides as she spoke. "She was engulfed in light, and when it faded, she was dressed all in armor made of metal. She stepped onto the vehicle and vanished into the sky." She shook her head. "She has never returned."

"Wait, wait," Kairi said, "did you say her Keyblade turned into a _vehicle_?" She turned to Riku. "Keyblades can turn into _vehicles_?"

Riku rubbed the back of his neck. "Don't look at _me_ , I'm just as surprised as you are," he said.

"So, hang on a second." Milo held his hands up, then gestured at Kida. "Ten years ago, someone from another world visited Atlantis and talked about Darkness, then disappeared," he said, "and now..."--he gestured at Riku, Kairi, and Lea--"you three are here from another world, also talking about Darkness." He shook his head. "These two incidents can't not be related, not with how difficult it is to even _find_ Atlantis."

"Is there a record of her visit?" Riku asked. "Maybe if we could read about it..."

Kida shook her head. "Sadly, there is no written record of Atlantis' recent history," she said. "Our written language was lost, for thousands of years. Milo is the only reason we are regaining it at all."

Kairi pressed her lips together. "How did she make her weapon turn into a vehicle?" she asked. "Was there an... an incantation or something?"

Kida shook her head. "No, she just threw it up in the air, and when it returned to her, it looked like a flying machine," she said. "I had never seen anything like it. The stones all around her reacted to its energy."

"Stones?" Riku pressed a knuckle against his chin, furrowing his brow. "What stones?"

"Many of the ancient stones in Atlantis are connected to the heart of the city," Kida said.

"The heart?" Riku echoed, and Milo lifted a hand to explain.

"There's a great power source here in Atlantis," he said, "that keeps the entire city, the whole civilization, alive. It's called the Heart of Atlantis, it's like a huge crystal." He lifted a finger and pointed toward the ceiling. "You can see it outside," he said, "up in the sky, surrounded by the stone faces of all the past kings of Atlantis." He looked at Kida then. "You're saying the stones reacted to this key vehicle?"

Kida nodded. "Yes, the ancient stones of the crumbling towers near her, they all lit up," she said, spreading her hands wide. "It was much like how the gliders light up when they are reacting to our crystals." She shook her head, fingering the glowing crystal around her neck. "I have never seen the stones react that way to anything but the crystals."

Riku pressed a knuckle to his chin in thought.

"Keyblades are connected to the heart of every world," he said. "Maybe there's something about this Heart of Atlantis that's special, and her Keyblade reacted to it."

"Can you show us where she was when she turned her Keyblade into a vehicle?" Kairi asked, a little excited. Maybe they had just discovered something amazing! She had already learned so much, about other worlds and the people in them, and even about Lea and Riku, but this was something even _Riku_ didn't seem to know anything about. How many other secrets did the Keyblade hold? "Maybe if we go there, we can figure out what happened." She reached out and took Riku's elbow, giving him an eager look. "What if _our_ Keyblades can transform, too?"

"Don't get your hopes up _too_ high, Kairi," he said, frowning a little. "We don't even know who she was. It might not have been a Keyblade at all."

"A large weapon shaped like a key?" Lea arched one eyebrow sharply. "If it _looks_ like a duck..."

"We're not talking about ducks," Riku insisted, shaking his head, and then he looked at Kida. "If you could show us where this happened, though, it could be useful."

Kida nodded. "Of course," she said. "I can take you whenever you like." She gave them a smile, spreading her arms. "You will stay tonight, yes?" she asked. "We will have a great feast in celebration of joining Atlantis to other worlds, and you will be our honored guests."

Kairi looked at Riku with wide eyes. He would let them stay, right? She really wanted to learn more about this world and its people. Besides, wouldn't it be rude to refuse their invitation? The look on her face must have been very intense, because Lea snickered helplessly and turned away before Riku just smiled at her.

He turned to Kida and Milo with a nod.

"All right," he said, "we'll be your guests for the evening. Thank you."

"Then it is decided!" Kida looked at Milo, then made a gesture at the guards who stood near the doors to the throne room. "Tonight there will be a feast, and we will honor the visitors from another world." The guards nodded and one of them turned to leave, presumably to make the arrangements for said feast, and Kida moved down the steps to approach Kairi. "I can take you to the place the woman's weapon transformed," she said, and then looked at Riku, "if you would like to go now?"

Riku nodded. "Yes, let's go now," he said.

Kairi fisted her hands and bounced in place. "This is so exciting," she said, a wide smile splitting her face. She never imagined that a Keyblade might be able to _transform_.

Milo followed Kida down the steps and sidled up alongside Lea, who just sort of blinked at the sudden proximity.

"Can I help you?" he asked, and Milo pushed his glasses up his nose.

"So about these other worlds," he said, an impish sort of curiosity in his eyes. "What can you tell me about them?"

"Um..." Lea looked at Kairi, like he wasn't sure how much he was allowed to divulge, and she just shrugged and shook her head, glancing at Riku, but Riku was apparently very busy fielding questions from Kida and looking a little uncomfortable with the way she reached out to tweak his hair, which was almost as white as hers.

"I guess there's no harm in telling you about them," she said, giving Milo a smile. They had already said that there _were_ other worlds, so there was no reason they couldn't talk about what they saw there.

"Excellent," Milo said, whipping a little notebook out of a bag at his hip. He licked the tip of a pencil and pressed it to a clean page as they started after Kida and Riku. "Ready when you are. What can you tell me about the architecture, to start? The architecture of a civilization can tell you a lot about its people."

Kairi tapped her chin. "I think the architecture in Paris was my favorite," she said, and Milo made a face.

"Paris?" He shook his head. "I know the French are a little odd, but I wouldn't say they're from another _world_..."

Lea just burst out laughing, and Kairi hefted a sigh. This was going to take a little explaining.


	22. Glide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we discover new modes of transportation.

Kida scratched her head and held her hands out in front of her, like she was trying to weigh something in her palms.

"So," she said, "the heart of a world is not a physical heart, thus the Heart of Atlantis is _not_ the heart of Atlantis; when a heart is lost, two halves are created, but the half without the heart is _not_ a heartless; and someone who has _lost_ their heart... they are a nobody?"

Lea laughed helplessly.

"I guess it really does sound pretty absurd, when you put it like that," he guffawed. 

Kida and Milo had just been _full_ of curiosity. On most of their other missions, the person they had spoken to--the leader of that world--had been familiar with the Keyblade and Darkness and what the mission meant for their world. Kida and Milo, however, hadn't had any idea, and had asked a myriad of questions about each point that was brought up. Riku seemed to be getting a little flustered with the constant interruptions in his explanations.

"And these Keyblades of yours," Milo said then, tilting his head, "did you not bring them with you?"

Lea blinked, then conjured his Keyblade to his hand.

"It's right here," he said, shaking his head, and Milo leapt back.

"Holy moly!" he gasped, a hand over his chest. "Where did--? How did you--? That came out of _thin air_!"

Holding the weapon up for them to see, Lea arched one eyebrow at the baffled looks on Kida and Milo's faces. Right, right, he forgot sometimes that having summonable weaponry was kind of unusual. It had taken him ages to get the hang of it, back when he'd first joined the Organization. He was used to having frisbees in his hands and just carrying them around. There had been several times when he'd returned to the castle with his chakrams in his hands, and Xigbar had made fun of him for carrying them when he didn't have to.

"Keyblades come from the heart," Riku explained. "They're connected to the heart of their wielder even as they're connected to the heart of a world, so the wielder can summon and dismiss the Keyblade at will."

"So it is a projection of one's heart?" Kida asked, and Riku nodded hesitantly.

"Something like that, yes."

Kida grinned at Lea.

"Your heart looks like _fire_ ," she said with gusto, puffing her chest out. "You would make an excellent Atlantean warrior."

Lea's eyes widened, and a laugh tumbled out of him.

"Do I get one of those big hairy masks?" he asked, dismissing his Keyblade.

"Only after you have completed the eighteen trials of the warrior," she said sternly. "Can you spear a fish from twenty yards?"

Lea tried not to continue laughing. He hadn't really been serious.

"I... don't know that I've ever tried," he admitted, and Kida picked up a long stick on the edge of the path they walked.

"Here, I will show you," she said, moving up beside Lea and holding the stick up by her shoulder. "First, you must--"

"Ah, Kida, maybe fishing lessons should wait 'til later?" Milo suggested, and Kida looked up.

"You are right," she said, nodding firmly. "There is no water here, anyway--it would be better for me to show you when we get back to the shore."

Lea hid amusement behind one hand.

"I'll look forward to it," he said.

"These forests are beautiful," Kairi breathed, doing a slow spin as she walked and admiring all the low hanging moss. "They're a bit like the jungly areas on our island, back home, don't you think, Riku?"

Riku pressed a knuckle to his chin. "A little," he said, watching a family of creatures that looked rather like reptilian monkeys as they leapt from branch to branch over their heads. "The, uh... wildlife is a little more exotic, though."

"Atlantis is home to many beautiful creatures," Kida said, lifting a leaf to show them a peculiar looking bug that vaguely resembled a praying mantis. "Milo has told me that where he comes from has strange animals like... cats--small, hairy beasts with claws and fangs and eyes that glow in the dark."

"We have cats, too," Riku said, smiling a little. "And dogs, which are slightly bigger hairy beasts."

"Most of the beasts in these woods lack hair," Kida said sagely. "There are many species of reptiles--some with wings."

"Right, like the little dinosaurs we saw when we arrived," Kairi said enthusiastically. "They were really cute!"

"There's no Tyrannosauruses, are there?" Lea asked Milo, only half joking, and Milo looked startled.

"What? Tyrannosaurs?" He shook his head, adjusting his glasses. "No, no, there are no dinosaurs here--the reptilian animals I've found here are of a completely different classification than dinosaurs. I mean, the Tyrannosaur lived during the Cretaceous period, which was _millions_ of years ago, like humans weren't even an inkling in the _mind_ of the earth yet. The physiological characteristics of the animals here, though, they're fundamentally different from--"

"I just need to know if there are any 80-foot lizards that are gonna try and eat us, Milo," Lea interrupted gently.

Milo rubbed the top of his head and pressed his lips together, looking a little abashed. "Er... no," he said. "Nothing like that."

After a moment, the woods opened up to a small clearing. There were several large boulders at the edges, moss-covered and ancient as they were huge. Kida stepped forward and stood in the center of the clearing, spreading her arms.

"This is where I saw the woman with the blue hair," she said. "She stood here and threw her weapon into the sky, and when it fell back to the earth it was a flying machine."

"I think we should just petition Yen Sid to actually give us the Keyblade User Manual," Lea muttered under his breath, sidelong to Riku. "I'm convinced he's holding out on us."

Really, how much did they know about the Keyblade? Not a lot, in the grand scheme of things. Where did it come from? How many other wielders were there? Who had taught Yen Sid? It felt a little unfair to be learning to use this powerful weapon without having all the facts--how many other things could it do that they just didn't know about? Just how much was a Keyblade capable of, and how much of that did they really understand? Lea really hated not having the answers, and knowing where they were but not having access to them. He wanted to pick Yen Sid's brain, but he knew the old sorcerer would just be cryptic and vague about everything; it was kind of infuriating.

"Doesn't it piss you off?" Lea asked, and Riku frowned.

"Not really," he said. "I think Master Yen Sid wants us to figure things out for ourselves."

"Yeah, but... we don't really have time for that, do we?"

"Well, think about it," Riku said: "if he just tells us what the Keyblade can do, if we don't have to find out for ourselves, we won't have as strong an understanding of it, because we didn't have to find the answers on our own. You _get_ something a lot better when you've gotta work through it, right?" He shook his head. "If someone just gives you the answer, if you don't have to do the work yourself, it doesn't stick the same way. Didn't you take a math class when you were in school? You've gotta show your work!"

"Dude, I suck at math."

Riku hefted a sigh. "Well, you can't just look up the answers in the back of the book," he said, frowning. "Even though Sora would probably tell you you can." He gave Lea a serious look. "When you do it for yourself, then it's your own."

"I guess so," Lea said, folding his arms. "I still don't like it."

"You don't have to like it," Riku said as Kairi stepped into the clearing with Kida, "you just have to accept it." He grinned as Lea stuck his tongue out, and then joined Kairi in the clearing.

Kairi drew Destiny's Embrace and turned it in her hand a moment. The rocks around them began to glow a dusty turquoise color, in angled lines up and down the rock faces.

"You see how the stones react?" Kida asked, waving toward the boulders. She closed her hand over the crystal she wore around her neck. "Usually they only react to our crystals, but the crystals are all part of the Heart of Atlantis. If these Keyblades are connected to the heart of the _world_ , then I suppose it makes sense enough."

Riku ran his fingers across the glowing lines, then looked at Kida.

"Everything in a world is connected, if you look deep enough," he said.

Kairi held her Keyblade out in front of her, then rested the head in her palm, tapping it there. "I don't see how this could become anything like a vehicle," she said. "I mean it's not even that big..."

"Well, it already manifests out of thin air," Milo pointed out, stepping up alongside her and pushing his glasses up his nose as he examined the flowery head of the Keyblade. "I'd say that whatever rules of physics that isn't _breaking_ are being considerably bent, already."

Riku drew Way to the Dawn and held it out, turning it over much like Kairi had done, and the turquoise glow grew brighter. Kida reached out to touch the little wing piece at the end of the weapon.

"Riku, your heart has wings," she said, her fingers dusting over the spine of the blade. "Wings let you fly great distances, much greater than those you could walk. This tells me you are very wise, even for being so young, for you have seen many things."

He blinked at her, looking a bit puzzled, and then glanced at Lea as if asking his opinion on this analysis. Lea just grinned and shrugged one shoulder, wondering if Riku was going to get a fishing lesson, too.

"What about me?" Kairi asked, holding her Keyblade up. "What does mine tell you?"

Kida smiled knowingly. "Your heart is a pillar," she said, closing her fingers around the shaft of Destiny's Embrace. "You are very strong. But flowers are delicate and soft, which tells me you are kind. And here, water," she said, pointing to the cresting wave on the hilt. "That means you are adaptive."

Lea wasn't sure if he was just amused by the fact that their Keyblades had basically become the topic of a horoscope reading, or if he was impressed because Kida was _right_. Riku had a wisdom about him that surprised, a sort of time-weary insight far beyond his years. And Kairi was _all_ of those things! Did the Keyblade really say so much about its wielder? Was it truly a visual representation of their heart? If that was the case, what did Sora's Keyblade say about him? He guessed he _was_ a bit simple... no, straightforward, that was a better word. Sora was up front and unembellished: what you saw was what you got, he had no secrets, and his Keyblade showed that just as plainly.

Maybe the Keyblade really _did_ show off the heart of the hand that held it. How did it know?

Lea drew his Keyblade forth and looked at the curved, spiked head, the translucent shaft--it really did look like fire, but was he a _warrior_? He still preferred flight to fight, all other things being equal. So what did that mean? What did his Keyblade know about his heart that he hadn't found yet?

"And so she just... threw it up in the air?"

Kairi's voice pulled Lea out of contemplation in time for him to watch her fling her Keyblade straight up in the air as hard as she could.

"Kairi-- _wait_!" he shouted at the same time Riku shouted the same thing. What went up inevitably had to come down, after all. Riku grabbed Kairi by the arm and yanked her to one side as Kida and Milo scrabbled to the other. Destiny's Embrace spun end over end above them and then came down with a _whunk_ , its head almost completely embedded in the earth. Riku looked like he was about ready to have a stroke, but Kairi just looked kind of disappointed.

"Nothing happened," she said, quirking her mouth to one side and pulling free of Riku's grip.

"Kairi you could have cleaved somebody in half," Lea said, resting his Keyblade against his shoulder.

"Nonsense," she said, striding to the blade and giving it a tug before she dismissed it and called it back to her hand, "I knew exactly where it was going to land."

True enough, Lea realized, it _had_ landed several feet from where any of them had been standing.

She turned the Keyblade over in her hand again and frowned at it, finding absolutely nothing vehicular about it, and then looked up at Lea.

"You try," she said, putting her free hand on her hip. "There's got to be some trick to it."

"Kairi, I don't think it's in some snap of the wrist," Lea said, scratching his head. "It might have just been something that one person's Keyblade could do."

"Aren't you the slightest bit curious, though?" she asked, and Lea pursed his lips.

"Well, sure I am," he said, frowning, "but I'm not sure standing around throwing our Keyblades in the air is going to accomplish anything but tearing up the dirt and possibly splitting somebody's head open."

"Have you got any better ideas?" Kairi asked. Lea had to admit he had none.

Of course he was curious. How cool would it have been to have like a flying Keyblade car? None of them knew how this worked, though! Wasn't this the sort of thing you kind of wanted instructions for? Even if they managed to figure out how the Keyblade turned into a vehicle, would any of them be able to operate it? Didn't you need a license for stuff like that?

Apparently tired of waiting for Lea to give in, Kairi turned to Riku.

"Fine, _you_ try," she said. "I don't believe it's something only that one Keyblade could do--Keyblades all have their strengths and weaknesses, but they can all connect hearts, they can all lock and unlock worlds... if a Keyblade can be used to travel _between_ worlds, isn't that something they should all be able to do?"

Riku looked thoughtful for a moment, then stepped forward and held his Keyblade out in front of him.

"I agree," he said. "Keyblades are all similar on a base level, even if they all have their own specific skillsets. That's why any wielder can hold someone else's Keyblade, and why you can change keychains." He furrowed his brow, looking at Way to the Dawn and then glancing up at the open air above them. "An ability like that... it's hard to believe that something so drastic would only belong to one specific Keyblade." He tossed the Keyblade up, just high enough for it to flip 360, the hilt landing back in his hand as it came back down.

"How do you make it appear from thin air?" Kida asked, sounding genuinely curious, and Riku pressed his lips together in thought.

"You just... _do_ ," he said, shaking his head. "It's like..."

He trailed off, and Lea lifted his chin.

"Like closing your hand around an extension of itself," he said, and everyone looked a bit puzzled. "The Keyblade is part of your heart, right?" he asked, looking at Riku. "So when you hold it, it really is just an extension of yourself. Like you guys were just talking about: it's a representation of your heart itself, in a way." He spun his Keyblade around one hand, then pointed it forward before letting it rest against his shoulder again. "So conjuring it is like extending a muscle--you can't really _explain_ it, you just _do_ it, and you're clumsy at it and it kinda hurts until you get the hang of using that muscle."

He had _sucked_ at it at first. He had still questioned his heart back then, still wondered how legitimate his claim to a Keyblade even _was_. There were times he still did, but he had enough faith in his own heart now that the Keyblade came to him without protest. He had Riku and Kairi to thank for that--they were the ones who had showed him that a heart wasn't something you figured out in a day. They'd had theirs their whole lives and they were still figuring them out, and he shouldn't have expected that his own would make sense again so quickly. Hearts didn't always _make_ sense; in fact, they _frequently_ didn't, but he was learning to trust his heart even when his head didn't always agree. The Keyblade came to his hand because he had finally accepted that it _should_.

Riku held Lea's gaze for a moment, then looked down at his Keyblade, and then he pressed his free hand over his heart. There was a faraway look on his face for a moment, and Lea lifted his eyebrows.

"Got something to share with the class, _maestro_?" he asked, and Riku's mouth pulled up slightly into a hint of a grin.

"Maybe," he said. "We'll know in a minute."

Holding his Keyblade out in front of him, Riku closed his eyes for a long moment, then stepped back and hurled the weapon up into the air. There was a long moment of tense silence, and then...

Way to the Dawn plunged back to the earth, sticking into the ground and quivering there.

"Was... that what was supposed to happen?" Milo asked, giving Kida a sidelong look. She just shrugged and shook her head.

Riku's shoulders slumped and he hefted a heavy sigh.

"No, I guess _that_ was a bust, too," he said, dismissing the Keyblade. It vanished from where it had stabbed the ground with a flash of purple and white, but he didn't call it back to his hand. "Forget it, I guess I don't really know what I'm talking about."

"You didn't talk about it," Lea said, dismissing his Keyblade and moving to Riku's side. "What'd you do?"

Something had _felt_ different. For the long moment Way to the Dawn had been in the air--longer than gravity should have allowed for, for that matter--the air had felt different, charged, like it was laced with static electricity. _Something_ had been different. But Riku, in true Riku fashion, didn't get it right on the first try, and thus supposed he was just a failure.

"It doesn't matter," Riku said, giving Lea a frustrated look. "It's--"

"Not important," Lea finished for him, "yeah, yeah, I know. Except it _is_. You _did_ something, something was different that time." He took Riku's shoulder. "Remember how I told you you didn't have to get everything right on the first try?"

Riku just held his gaze, his eyes a storm of self-deprecation even as they yearned for that elusive second chance he kept denying himself.

"What did you do?" Lea asked again, and Riku looked down.

"I thought... if the Keyblade is an extension of the heart, and we wield it like a part of ourselves," he said, and then hesitated. He cleared his throat and shook his head. "I thought if I just _imagined_ a vehicle--you know, willed it?--maybe that'd work. I thought if I could see it with my heart, maybe it'd happen, but I was wrong. That didn't do it."

"Do it again."

Riku snapped his chin up and gave Lea a weird look. "Why?" he asked, almost sullen. "It didn't _work_."

"It didn't work the first time you ever tried it," Kairi said, stepping up beside him. "Lea's right--something felt different that time. I think you're on the right track." She reached down and took his hands, giving him an urgent look. "Riku, try it again."

Riku hesitated, then looked down at Kairi's hands clasped around his. He took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then exhaled and pulled his hands from between Kairi's, holding one out and calling his Keyblade to his grip again. Staring at it for a moment, he looked at Lea, then looked at Kairi, then set his jaw.

"Here, wait." Kida moved up alongside Riku and took the crystal from around her neck. "Use this," she said, dropping the cord around his neck. "The crystals are more than just pieces of the Heart of Atlantis. They are the energy source that keeps this world alive, but more than that, they are pieces of our past, and our future. They are pieces of _our_ hearts, and when hearts work together, that is when they are strongest."

Riku's face flushed pink, and he shook his head awkwardly, then clasped the crystal in his other hand.

"Okay," he said, closing his eyes, "here goes."

There was an absence of sound, like everyone had forgotten to breathe, as Riku threw the Keyblade up in the air a second time. They all watched it fly, impossibly high, and Lea shielded his eyes when there was a bright flash of white and purple light. What fell to the earth then was not Way to the Dawn, not in any shape it had held before. What fell to the earth then was much larger, sending a shockwave of warm air in its wake; it was sleek and sharp, oblong, with swept-back wing shapes along the sides. It was mostly dark blue, with accents of deep red and ice white, much like Way to the Dawn was colored, hovering about a foot above the grass, and Riku looked lightheaded.

"It is not the same as the woman's was," Kida said, putting her hands on her hips and nodding, "but that is definitely the sort of thing she flew away on." She nudged Milo in the side with her elbow and gestured at Riku. "I knew the crystal would work."

"It worked," Riku breathed, and his eyes lit up and his face split into a huge smile, running his palm across the smooth metal lines. "It... it really _worked_."

"Riku _look_ at this thing!" Kairi gasped, her eyes wide and her mouth wider. "This is without a doubt the coolest thing I have ever seen."

"No kidding," Riku said, keeping his touch light, like he was afraid it would fall if he wasn't gentle. "It looks like a surfboard!"

Lea folded his arms and grinned when Riku looked up at him, looking for all the world like a little kid who had just found a week's worth of sweets stashed in the back of the pantry. Lea knew Riku hadn't been named a Master for nothing--his intuition and skill were eclipsed only by his insecurity and self-loathing. When he wasn't busy second guessing himself, Riku was capable of just about anything, it seemed. Now if only _he_ could see that, they'd be in good shape.

"This is why you should listen to me more often," Lea said with a harrumph. "Sometimes the student has things to teach the teacher; got it memorized?"

"Yeah, yeah, memorized," Riku said.

"I think you should let _me_ drive it, since I was the one who told you to try again," Lea said, and Riku snorted.

"Yeah _right_ ," he laughed. "Get your own!"

"Watch me, I _will_.." He gestured at the strange glider then. "Where's the... steering wheel, anyway?" he asked.

"There's no steering wheel on a surfboard," Riku said with a huff. "Haven't you ever surfed before?"

"My hometown didn't have a high tide," Lea replied flatly. "Besides, do I _look_ like the fun in the sun type? There's a reason I always went to the beach in _Twilight_ Town. All I have to do is _imagine_ Agrabah and I get a sunburn."

"Give it a try, Riku," Kairi said, tracing the lines of the little wings on the sides of the glider with her fingers. "Think you can get it to work?"

Riku straightened, squaring his shoulders and pressing down on the glider as if to test that it could hold weight. When it didn't give much under his hand, he grinned at her and lifted his chin.

"Of course I can," he said, planting one foot on the glider. "You've seen how good I am at surfing. This is just surfing on air instead of wat-- _eaugh_!"

Riku let out a yelp of alarm when his attempt to step up onto the glider sent it shooting out from under him, and found himself all at once flat on his back on the ground, the wind knocked out of him. Lea doubled over laughing. Kairi dropped to her knees beside Riku then, covering her mouth with one hand and obviously trying not to laugh.

"Are you okay?" she asked, and Riku's groan of pain quickly turned to laughter.

In the end, Lea had to admit that Riku had been right about one thing: figuring something out for yourself did make it feel more like your own. Figuring out how to drive a Keyblade glider without any instructions, however, felt more like a concussion, but he guessed that could be chalked up to experience. By the time the light began to fade, the three of them had at least a basic level of control over their gliders, and no one had broken any bones. Lea called that an unequivocal victory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this chapter is a bit late! thanks for reading!! ♥


	23. Intervention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kairi speaks her mind.

Atlantean food was really, really strange. There was a lot of fish, or... at least something that resembled fish, which Riku supposed made sense, given that most of this world was water. There were odd flat fish with too many eyes and a very peculiar shellfish of some sort with meat that was bright red. There were enormous shrimp with _hundreds_ of legs, and something that looked a bit like an eel, only with nasty orange spikes running down its spine. He wondered how in the world you were even supposed to eat that without getting stabbed, his hand hovering over it curiously.

"Here, I will show you," Kida said, reaching out and grabbing the eel by the head and the tip of the tail. "You have to grasp the upper jaw here, and give it a yank--" She did so, and the entire spinal column pulled away, rib bones and all, and Riku's eyes widened. Kida tossed the spine away and handed Riku the plate with the brutally de-boned meat left on it. "Enjoy."

Atlantean table manners were also a little strange.

Picking daintily at the eel (which was actually quite tender and flavorful), Riku looked up at Kairi, who was attempting to pry open some of the shellfish with a small, flat knife. Kida gleefully sat down beside her and showed her the apparent trick to it, and Kairi was delighted, eagerly trying again. She seemed really at ease here, happily chatting with Kida and a few of her guards; she'd spent a good twenty minutes discussing how school worked back home, and Kida had been surprised that _nashimnom_ was not a part of the curriculum. Kairi clearly had no idea what _nashimnom_ even was, but took it in stride and regaled them with grim tales of midterms.

He turned toward Lea, who was seated beside him on the other side, chatting animatedly with Milo.

"The sentence structure in Atlantean is strictly subject-object-verb," Milo said; "it never deviates." He took a bite of his enormous shrimp, then wagged one of the legs at Lea. "Nouns have seven grammatical cases, as well as a plural and augmentative suffix. Pronouns have five."

"Wait, wait, go back to nouns," Lea said, setting his plate aside. He seemed really interested in this. "Can you give me an example of the cases?"

"Sure, sure, ah... take the word _weydagos_ ," Milo said. "It means 'visitor'--so, like you and your friends. Er, except all three of you would be the plural: _weydagosen_."

" _Wey... dagosen_ , got it. So _-en_ is the plural suffix."

"Right." Milo waved a hand in the air, then licked some sauce off his thumb. "The oblique case adds _-tem_ to the end. So, if something is happening _to_ you guys, it's _weydagostem_." He shook his head. "Ah, not that anything's gonna happen to you guys--"

Lea snorted a laugh. "I know, it's just an example," he said. "So _-en_ and _-tem_... what else?"

"The genitive case adds _-ag_ , so..."

Riku sighed softly, shaking his head and turning away from the conversation. He really didn't understand what they were talking about. Languages had always kind of evaded him, but Lea certainly seemed to get what Milo was saying. He glanced back at Kairi, who had pried open several of the shellfish and was now roasting the meat over the open fire in a pit at the center of the dining area. Kida hovered nearby, surely explaining to her the lifestyle of that particular shellfish, or the method of catching it, perhaps. Riku suddenly felt a little out of place--what did _he_ have to offer to any of these conversations? He didn't really think he was an engaging person, and a quick glance around at his friends' effortless discourse sort of clinched it. They were outspoken and dynamic and he was... hesitant and unsure of himself, and it showed. That was why nobody was talking to him, right?

He picked at the eel a bit more, then set the plate down and got to his feet. Something about this atmosphere suddenly felt very stifling, and he needed to step away. Leaving his plate behind, Riku moved away from the firelight of the feast and toward the treeline nearby. Nobody would miss him if he just decided to get some practice in.

Drawing Way to the Dawn, he held it out in front of him and inhaled deeply through his nose, then exhaled through his mouth. He twisted the blade in his hand and shifted, then thrust it forward sharply. He turned to his right and then dropped to one knee-- Wait, no, that was wrong.

Frowning, Riku stood back up and furrowed his brow. Why could he never get through this form without messing up? Okay, try again.

Forward, thrust, turn to the right, _parry_ , then drop to one knee. He brought the Keyblade down and then shifted to bring it back up and to his left. Two steps forward, thrust, turn to the... Wait, which way did he turn, then?

"Ugh, what's _wrong_ with me?" he snarled, hefting a sigh and letting his arms drop to his sides.

He'd been working on this form for about a week now, and he still didn't have the hang of it. That was unacceptable! Master Yen Sid expected more of him! He had found he just wasn't very good at doing solo forms, though; he lost his place sometimes, or did things out of order. It seemed he had the opposite problem from Lea: he was great at executing a form in a spar, when its functionality was being tested against an opponent, but without the presence of another person, he just couldn't keep track of what to do when a lot of the time. Riku rarely lost spars, but when it came to just memorizing the steps of a kata he found himself tangled up and frustrated.

He scowled down at the glowing crystal around his neck, closing his hand over it. Kida had given each of them one, as a token of Atlantis' esteem. He wasn't sure how much _esteem_ he really deserved, though. A Master should have been _better_ at this.

With a frustrated sigh, he held the blade out to try again. Forward, thrust, turn to the right, parry, drop, up and left, two steps forward, thrust, turn to the right, thrust, strike, pivot and step--

Riku stumbled, having turned the wrong way again. He caught himself on a tree, then angrily kicked the ground, ripping up a divot of grass. He dropped to a seat at the base of the tree with a harrumph, drawing his legs up and resting his Keyblade over his knees. Why couldn't he _do_ it? Why did he keep messing up? It just kind of seemed like everything he _should_ have been good at--conversation, problem solving, katas--he just couldn't get right. What had Master Yen Sid seen in him that had made him name him a master at all? He couldn't do _anything_ right!

He glanced up sharply when something beaned him atop the head, then looked down in time to see a munny ball hit the grass by his legs. What the--?

"Munny for your thoughts," came Lea's voice, and Riku turned to see him step out of the shadow of a nearby tree. He hadn't even felt him approaching? Ugh, he was really off his game tonight.

"It's nothing," he said, shaking his head. "I just needed a little air."

"It's never nothing, with you," Lea said, leaning against the tree and folding one arm across his abdomen, holding a drink in a cup carved out of a coconut with his other hand. 

"I hope that isn't alcoholic," Riku said dryly, and Lea arched one eyebrow.

"Why? I'm not on duty."

Riku gave him a weary look. "Lea, we're on a _mission_."

Lea just shook his head. "Relax, Fun Police," he said, laughing, "it's just juice, okay?" He took a sip and then sat down in the grass near him, resting his back against the tree. "What are you doing out here, anyhow? Party get too rowdy for ya?"

Riku shook his head. "No," he said, "it's fine. Queen Kida and Milo are really nice, and they really know how to treat guests."

"So what's the problem?"

"I wasn't contributing anything," he said, reaching over and picking up the munny ball. "You and Kairi, you're engaging and interesting, you have stuff to say and understand things about their culture." He sighed again, rolling the ball between his thumb and forefinger, then threw it into the shadows like he was skipping it across a pond. "I just sat there and had nothing to say about anything. Some ambassador-- _some_ master. I can't master a sword _or_ a conversation."

Lea blew a raspberry. "So small talk isn't your thing, so what?" he asked. "That's what you keep me and Kairi around for, right?"

Riku looked distressed, shaking his head. "You guys are a lot more than my _small talk_ generators," he insisted, and Lea laughed.

"Easy, Riku, I'm yanking your chain."

"Well, stop being so good at it." 

Lea hesitated a moment, then shook his head. "Riku, don't forget _you_ were the one who figured out how to get the Keyblades to turn into those gliders," he said.

"Yeah, because _you_ told me to try again." Riku leaned forward and folded his arms atop his Keyblade, which was still resting on his knees, and he dropped his chin onto them. "I just wish I felt like I knew what I was doing," he admitted after a moment of silence.

"Do you honestly think _I_ have _any_ idea what I'm doing most of the time?" Lea asked, looked baffled, and Riku hunched his shoulders.

"You pull it off, though," he said. "Even when you say something wrong, you're charming and it doesn't matter. When you mess up when we're sparring, you whip out some unexpected move and make it work." He sighed heavily. "I'm supposed to be a master, I'm supposed to set an example, and half the time I just feel like I'm dragging you two down."

Lea opened his mouth to speak, then hesitated and got to his feet instead. Riku looked up as he held one hand out and sort of waved it at him.

"Just... hold that thought a minute," Lea said, and then turned and jogged back toward the festivities.

Riku stared after him for a moment, then dropped his chin onto his arms again with another sigh. It figured--he'd finally run Lea off. He didn't blame him, really; he was surprised Lea hadn't gotten sick of his whining sooner. He couldn't just expect his students to keep picking him up when he felt bad about himself. He needed to get it together!

He shifted so his forehead was on his arms instead, and stared down at his lap before closing his eyes. 

Why was getting it together so hard?

Lifting his head when he heard footsteps, Riku was surprised to see Lea return to his seat at the base of the tree, with Kairi in tow. Wait, what was going on?

"What is this?" he asked, and Kairi put her hands on her hips.

"It's an intervention," she said firmly, peering down at him with a frown on her face. "You are way too hard on yourself and you need to stop."

"I figured if we were going to have another Convince Riku He's Worth It discussion, I should invite Kairi this time," Lea said, nudging Riku with his elbow. "I told her you were beating yourself up for not having mastered something you were taught like a week ago, and she agreed that you need to knock it off."

Riku sort of sagged where he sat, feeling his face heat up a little.

"Y-you guys are overreacting," he said.

Kairi dropped to a crouch in front of him, folding her arms on her thighs and pressing her lips together.

"Riku, you walked away from a party being thrown in our honor to sulk with your Keyblade in the forest," she said dryly. "I hardly think this is an overreaction."

"I'm not sulking," he said, hunching his shoulders, and Lea just snorted a laugh.

Kairi held Riku's gaze and then reached out to plant her hands on his arms.

"What's going on?" she asked. "Why'd you leave the party?"

"Because I needed to get some work done," he hedged, averting his eyes. "I didn't have anything to contribute to the party, anyway."

"You have _plenty_ to contribute to a party, Riku," Kairi said. "I remember how you used to tell scary stories to me and Sora when we would camp on our island--your sense of timing was impeccable."

Riku looked down and away. "I don't really think my ability to scare the pants off Sora is relevant," he said. Kairi reached for his hand.

"I'm just saying, you tell good stories," she said. "I know you get nervous around new people, especially important people, but I think if you relaxed a little and stopped trying to be perfect, you'd be surprised with how well you do."

"I'm supposed to be setting an example, though," he said, furrowing his brow. "I can't screw up, it'd reflect badly on _all_ of us."

"Being human doesn't reflect badly," Lea said. "Don't you think you're being just a _little_ too strict about this?"

He shook his head.

"I have to live up to the expectations that have been set for me," he said. "How am I supposed to face Master Yen Sid if I can't even get a simple form right?"

"Firstly, I've seen the forms you do, and they're _not_ simple," Kairi said. "The combinations you can string together in a spar are mind-blowing, Riku; I can't even _think_ about doing stuff that complicated."

"See, that's just the--"

" _Secondly_ ," Kairi interrupted him, snapping her hand out and pressing the pad of her index finger over his lips, "you're too quick to praise the two of us when we struggle just as much as you do."

"He doesn't praise _me_ ," Lea sniffed, and Kairi gave him A Look.

"It took me a whole day of working on Thunder to get the results I wanted even once," she said, turning her gaze back to Riku. "I haven't been able to reproduce those results, either--the spell that made the glass? I haven't been able to do another one that strong. Does that make me a failure?"

"O-of course not!" Riku insisted. How could Kairi think she was a failure? Kairi didn't have half the experience he and Sora did, but she'd picked up the Keyblade and worked really hard at it anyway! She struggled with magic, but she never gave up! "I'm really proud of you for trying as hard as you do," he said, and glanced toward Lea then. "You're both really good students, and I'm proud of _both_ of you."

"But not of yourself," Lea said, and Riku balked.

What did he have to be proud of in himself?

"You work harder than I ever did, but it's still not enough for you," he said. "Everybody makes mistakes, but you just can't forgive yourself when it's you."

Riku flustered.

"It's _different_ for you," he said. "You're students, you're allowed to make mistakes. But me, I'm your teacher--I'm a Keyblade Master, I'm supposed to have my act together."

"And what exactly about your act isn't 'together'?" Lea asked, and before Riku could respond, he had held his hand up to stop him. "I don't think it's about acts at all. I think you're hard on yourself because you still haven't forgiven yourself."

Riku exhaled like he'd been stepped on, turning away from Lea and avoiding Kairi's eye. That was _exactly_ why he was hard on himself, but he didn't want to admit that to them. He felt foolish and childish, like he'd sentenced himself to an indefinite Time Out and was being tempted out of the corner. He wasn't ready yet. He wasn't ready to be forgiven yet.

"It doesn't matter why," he said quietly. "I have to be hard on myself. I'm hard on you guys, too, but you don't complain about it."

"Yes I do," Lea said frankly, and Riku made a frustrated noise.

"Riku, you're not half as hard on us as you are on yourself," Kairi piped up, sitting down on the forest floor and tucking her legs mermaid style beside her. "For that matter, you're not even as hard on me as you are on _Lea_."

"Yeah, what's up with _that_?" Lea grumbled. "No playing favorites."

"I'm not playing favorites!" Riku said sharply. "You're _both_ my students, you're _both_ my favorite!"

Then he made a sound in the back of his throat and his face burned scarlet, and he slowly sunk his neck down into his shoulders. That had sounded really corny. It was true, though! He cared a lot about both of them! They both had their own strengths and weaknesses, and he didn't think he treated them any differently! ... Did he?

"You make Lea do twice the runthroughs you tell me to do," Kairi said, giving him a stern look, "and whenever I complain that we've worked too much on magic, you always fold." She shook her head. "You've never once given me that disappointed look when I mess something up, it's like I automatically get a pass, and that isn't fair."

"Why are you fighting me on something that works in your favor?" Riku asked, baffled. "If I do those things, it's not on purpose, but you're saying you _want_ me to look disappointed?"

"No," she said, "I'm saying I want you to stop putting me up on this pedestal. I want you to stop thinking I can do no wrong and that my mistakes don't matter. It isn't fair to _anyone_ , Riku, least of all you."

"Me?" he echoed, furrowing his brow.

"My mistakes are nothing, but yours are unforgivable," she said, reaching out and cupping his chin in one hand. "That's what you think, isn't it?"

"Kairi, your mistakes are taking a wrong step in a spar or accidentally setting Lea's shoe on fire," Riku said, shaking his head. "My mistakes are in a completely different league."

"Are they?" she asked. "Riku, a mistake is a mistake--it's something you _didn't mean to do_. Maybe some are bigger than others, but they're all forgivable, because the very nature of a mistake is that it wasn't deliberate."

"She makes a good point," Lea said, lifting his eyebrows, and Kairi glowered at him.

"Oh, don't even get me started on you, mister," she said. "You two, you're two of a kind, you are." She looked back at Riku, shifting a bit where she sat. "Do you remember, when you were eleven, you had that paper route in town, and Sora and I wanted to help you with it?"

Riku looked away. "Kairi, that isn't the same."

"No, go on, I wanna know," Lea said, resting his chin in his palm.

"Riku gave me the map with the route on it, but I didn't actually know how to read it," Kairi said. "We wound up taking a wrong turn and delivering papers to about forty people who didn't subscribe, and _not_ delivering papers to about forty people who _did_. Riku got in a lot of trouble, and almost lost the route, because _I'd_ messed up, but he took the blame himself. He spent the whole day delivering the papers to the right people, and had the cost of the extras taken out of what they were going to pay him. It was all my fault, but he wasn't even upset with me."

Lea rolled his eyes. "Nothing less from Riku."

"You didn't do anything _wrong_ , Kairi," Riku said, "it was just--"

"A mistake," she interrupted, her eyes bright in the dim light, and Riku shook his head again.

"A mistake," he said. "But your mistake didn't put the entire world in danger. Your mistake didn't threaten Sora. Your mistake didn't get you--"

_Possessed._ Kairi's mistakes--any, all of them--were nothing compared to his, why was she even trying to line them up? He made a sibilant noise and hunched his shoulders.

"Your mistakes haven't even registered on the radar, okay?" he said.

"That isn't the point, Riku." Kairi narrowed her eyes at him. "The point is, regardless of how easy you go on _me_ , you never cut yourself a break, and that isn't okay! So you made a few mistakes--nobody's perfect, right? But now you hold yourself to a completely outrageous set of standards you know you'll never live up to." She gestured at his Keyblade. "Who masters a brand new complicated form in a _week_?"

"I should be able to--"

"No one does that, Riku. _No one_."

Riku stared down at his arms folded atop the Keyblade, his face flushed with fluster and his shoulders heavy. Why didn't they understand? Why couldn't they see that he still had so much work to do before he deserved this title? Why did they have so much faith in him? Faith he didn't deserve?

"We've all screwed up before," Lea said after a beat of silence, "but you don't see us beating ourselves up over it."

Kairi whipped her head around and jabbed her finger at Lea. "Don't," she said in a warning tone, and he blinked at her. "Don't even try that, Lea." She got to her feet, dusting her legs off and then putting her hands on her hips. "Both of you, you're ridiculous," she said. "I don't know how you even stay in one piece, the way you're so eager to fall apart everywhere."

Lea's expression soured. "Kairi, what are you talking about?"

"Yeah, what'd you mean when you said we were two of a kind?" Riku asked, looking genuinely puzzled. Sure, he knew he and Lea had some things in common, but he didn't think they were _so_ similar.

Kairi pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Lea, why did you wait so long to start calling me by my name?" she asked, and Lea's jaw worked for a moment before she folded her arms and frowned at him. "I know it's because you still felt guilty about what happened. About what you did."

He sighed gratingly. "Yeah, I felt bad for what I did," he said, avoiding her eye. "So what?"

Kairi huffed softly, her lips thinned when she pressed them together as she replied, "You came back for me."

Lea made a confused noise, and Riku's eyes narrowed. What was she talking about?

"After I was locked up in the castle," she said, "you came back."

"Yeah, but I couldn't _do_ anything," Lea said, and Riku looked over his shoulder to see him absently rub his fingers against the front of his shirt, like his chest itched. "Saïx showed up and kicked my ass, remember? Cleaved me clean through the brisket."

Riku's jaw slid ajar. Wait a second--he'd gotten that terrible wound from _Saïx_? He had fought the man with the giant claymore trying to help Kairi? He had seen the scar on Lea's side, all puckered and concave and pale against his freckled skin. He'd gotten that injury trying to help _Kairi_? He had always assumed he'd been overwhelmed by a bunch of minion Nobodies or something, he never would have supposed Axel had taken on Saïx for Kairi's sake. Saïx was really strong, and it had been clear in the round room, when Lea had been attacked, that there was something between him and the blue-haired man that went deeper than just work colleagues. He didn't know the story, it hadn't been his place to ask, but the idea that he'd sustained such a grave injury because he'd been trying to break Kairi out of the castle left Riku a little breathless.

"Anyone ever tell you it's the thought that counts?" Kairi asked, sort of flapping her arms at her sides. "It doesn't matter that you couldn't actually free me. You _wanted_ to, and all I did was say mean stuff and throw things at you."

Lea scratched his head. "I got you _into_ that mess," he said, averting his eyes. "I'd have thrown stuff at me, too."

She stammered for a moment, then threw both arms out to gesture at Riku and Lea.

"See that--that's exactly what I'm talking about!" she said, exasperated. "You both act like the mistakes you've made in the past are this permanent mark that blackballs you for life or something, when that just isn't true! You've both done some bad things, but you've both done _good_ things, too. And you've probably done a lot more good things than bad things, but you continually beat yourselves up over the bad things anyway. I'm so frustrated with you two!"

"Kairi, it's just--"

"I can't _watch_ it anymore, Riku," she said sharply, slicing her hand through the air. "I don't think either of you have any idea just how hard it is to watch you _drown_ yourselves this way." She pointed at Lea. "The way you shy away from us because you think you don't deserve to be a part of this team." She pointed at Riku. "The way you close in on yourself and never let anyone in because you're too scared of hurting us. It _does_ hurt! And I'm tired of throwing you a life preserver only to watch you push it away!"

Kairi's voice echoed shrilly off the trees, and Riku just stared at her for a moment. He'd had no idea. He'd had absolutely no idea that his attempts to serve his own penance were hurting her so much. The last thing he'd ever wanted to do was hurt Kairi--he _loved_ Kairi, and he always had! All he had ever wanted to do was keep her safe, and he'd thought that meant keeping her safe from him _self_ , too.

It was Lea who found his tongue first.

"Sorry," he said, looking down at his hands. "I'm... My mistakes screwed a lot of things up," he said, "things I'm still trying to repair. I've got a lot to make up to Roxas, you know? I feel like I'm still learning what to do with friends at all." He glanced up at Kairi, then frowned back down at his hands. "But I never meant for any of that to hurt _you_. Either of you."

Riku shook his head. "Me either," he said, tracing the lines of Way to the Dawn with one finger. "I just wanted to fix everything I'd broken, but... nothing ever feels like enough. I'm hard on myself because I feel like if I let anything slide, I'll just go down the same dark path again. I have to be vigilant, so I never make those mistakes again." He met Kairi's eye and frowned. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it hurt you that much."

She dropped to her knees and reached for both of their hands, and after exchanging a wary glance with Lea, Riku gave her his. Lea followed suit a moment later.

"It's okay," she said, smiling faintly. "You know why?"

"I have a feeling you're going to tell us," Lea said, and Kairi's smile widened.

"Because it was a _mistake_ ," she said, shaking her head. "That's all, just a mistake. And every mistake can be forgiven. Forgiveness isn't about how bad you've been... it's about how good you _want_ to be."

Riku was often amazed by Kairi. He was amazed by her strength, by her drive, and by her ability to see things in people that others couldn't. He was amazed by her compassion and her gentleness, even as she was fierce and fiery. Most of all, he was amazed by the way she always seemed to have just the right answer, to know just how to fix anything broken that stood in her path. He remembered the way it had felt, when she'd pulled his hood back to reveal the face of Xehanort's Heartless, the way her eyes had widened in surprise, but not horror, and the way her voice had been soft and almost pleading. He had hurt her then, too; he'd hurt both of them, her _and_ Sora, hiding in the shadows because he was too afraid to show them his face looking like that. Part of him had been scared they would fear him, hate him, that they would run from him and he would truly be alone, but what had scared him even more was the idea that they _wouldn't_. Kairi had known instantly, beyond the shadow of a doubt that, despite wearing that hideous face, he'd still been Riku. She always knew. She knew when a storm was going to hit the islands, or when someone had a secret; she knew when someone was lying, or when to speak versus when to listen. She always knew.

Maybe it was time he started listening to her.

"Milo and Queen Kida are waiting for us," she said softly, still holding their hands, and both Riku and Lea sort of jumped and recoiled, looking a little flustered. Kairi laughed daintily behind one hand. "Come on," she said, rising to her feet, "we can't spend the whole party out here, it's rude."

Riku smiled faintly. He guessed that _was_ kind of rude, wasn't it? He dismissed his Keyblade and got to his feet, glancing at Lea as the older man stood and arched his back, stretching his arms over his head.

"Thanks," Riku said, "both of you." He shook his head. "I can't promise I'll stop being so hard on myself, but... I can promise to try."

Lea rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, me too," he said, averting his eyes and shuffling his feet.

Kairi smiled and moved between them, linking their arms and then leaning forward.

"It's a work in progress," she said, pulling them back toward the light of the feast. "By the way, no more lying to me."

"What?" Riku blinked, and Kairi gave him a level gaze.

"I know you were sick before," she said. "You tried to hide it by staying home--which I'm glad you did, by the way--but I still knew."

Riku stumbled--"Wait, you _knew_ about that?"--then shot Lea a dirty look.

"Hey, don't look at me, man, I didn't say _nothin'_ ," Lea protested, and Kairi rolled her eyes.

"Come on, Riku, really?" she said. "A 'secret mission'? How long have we been friends? Did you really think that was going to fool me?"

"It was Lea's idea," he grumbled, and Lea stuck his tongue out.

"You're the one who made me promise not to tell her," Lea said.

"The _point_ is," Kairi interjected as the camp came back into view, "that you are both grounded until you learn how to be honest about things. That means telling me when something's wrong, or when you feel lousy, or when you need somebody to talk to. Deal?"

"Grounded?" Lea echoed, arching one eyebrow as Kida waved at them from where she stood by the fire pit. "You can't ground me, I'm older than you."

"Nope, grounded," she said. "I'm the princess, you two have to follow my rules."

"In that case, tell him he owes me five munny," Lea said then. "He threw perfectly good munny right into the woods."

"Riku, did you really?"

Kairi's laughter made Riku's heart swell, and he glanced sidelong at Lea over Kairi's head. Lea shrugged one shoulder and grinned helplessly. Riku knew that making mistakes was only human, but Kairi had really thrown into sharp relief that taking his punishment for past mistakes too far only made things worse. He wasn't really sure if he knew _how_ to cut himself a break, but he guessed he owed the both of them to at least make the effort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Saree for being an awesome beta and my best cheerleader! ♥ And thanks to everyone who has left comments, they really make my day~ ♥♥


	24. Where the Heart Is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kairi learns something new.

Lea had known as soon as they'd stepped onto the train for this mission that something wasn't right. He was starting to get really fed up with Yen Sid's selective distribution of information, for one thing: they hadn't even been given the name of the world they were headed to this time, and that had instantly set Lea's teeth grinding. When the train slowed to a stop, however, and the door slid open, Lea felt his heart clench.

He knew exactly where they were, before he even set foot outside the train. He knew these ruined streets, these broken wooden houses, these crumbling stone walls and silent purple skies. As Riku and Kairi stepped off the train, Lea lingered in the doorway, his pulse pounding in his ears.

This was Radiant Garden, and Lea was _not_ ready to be here. Not like this.

He hadn't been ready when he'd woken up in the basement of the castle, disoriented and groggy and somehow feeling even less complete than he'd felt without his heart. He hadn't been ready when Aeleus had told him that Braig and Isa had been nowhere to be found and continuing to look would do no good. He still wasn't ready. He wasn't ready to face the place he'd lost twelve years ago, or all the memories that still lingered here like fog over damp ground. He wasn't ready to accept that _he'd_ come home... but Isa had not.

He hadn't been ready any of the times he'd been here, _all_ the times he'd been here since waking up with his heart, but he _definitely_ wasn't ready to face this world as an ambassador. How could he possibly serve as a bringer of Light to a world he'd so grievously failed?

"Lea, come on!" Kairi called, poking her head back inside and giving him a curious look. "What're you waiting for?"

He shook his head quickly to clear it, to clear away the sound of everything in his mind screeching in protest to this entire mission, and gave Kairi a practiced smile.

"Nothing," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I thought I'd dropped something."

He wasn't ready for this, but could he let that get in the way? Wasn't this more important than his petty, selfish misgivings about the world he'd once called home? He had bragged to Sora and Riku that he would catch up to them in no time--could he really do that if he couldn't even face this ugly wound guilt had carved into him? This world had fallen, and then he'd thrown his lot in with the very people that had _caused_ it; didn't that make him an accessory to what had happened here? Xehanort and the apprentices had destroyed this place, destroyed everything and everyone in it, and then he had turned around and _helped_ them. They were the reason he and Isa had lost _their_ hearts, and they had sworn their loyalty like it was no big deal.

Lea wasn't ready to face this place because he wasn't ready to admit he was disgusted with himself.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped down from the train, then turned over his shoulder to watch it disappear. He made a soft noise of distress as it vanished in a flicker of white light, like maybe he'd just lost his only remaining chance to run, then sighed and turned back to Kairi and Riku, who were both peering at him inquisitively.

"What?" he asked.

"Are you okay?" Riku asked, arching one eyebrow.

"What? Sure, I'm fine," he said, making a bit of a face and waving one hand. "I just haven't... been here in a while." He cleared his throat awkwardly. "It's cleaning up nicely."

"You've been here before?" Riku said, and Lea nodded noncommittally.

"Yeah, a few times," he said, feeling more and more guilty with each word. He wasn't _lying_ , exactly, but he certainly wasn't being truthful, and after Kairi's outburst in Atlantis, he hated the idea of being false with either of them. Clearing his throat, he regarded Riku. "So where are we headed?" he asked, and Riku shaded his eyes from the mid-morning sun.

"Yen Sid said there would be a castle," he said, looking up and then pointing. "There," he said.

Lea and Kairi both looked up, and Lea felt a sense of heaviness wash over him. The castle was plainly visible from anywhere within Radiant Garden--it was a massive structure, its towers now twisted and gnarled with pipes and pulleys. Pieces of the spires had broken away and were suspended by cranes, and where the brick walls had once been a dusky rose color they were now a sallow rusty salmon, breaking away to reveal dark bricks underneath, like angry scars. It had been surrounded by trees all those years ago, positioned up on a bluff that was now mostly bare and ruined slate. The entire square had been destroyed, leaving only a narrow and lonely winding road that led up the hill to the battered castle door.

The Organization had done this, and he had _joined_ them.

"It's a little creepy," Kairi said quietly, tugging Lea out of his thoughts, and he quirked his mouth to one side in a frown.

"It didn't used to be," he said, waving a hand to gesture at the broken rock that rose away from the path that led upward. "There was a cobbled square here once, and houses on either side. And those," he continued, turning to point to the wide towers positioned around the thick perimeter wall, "used to be fountains." He sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. "There used to be a lot of fountains," he said, and Kairi looked at him with something like sadness in her eyes. Somewhere in the back of his mind, an echo of a memory flickered against the edges of conscious thought as he looked at her, but then it was gone.

"What's the name of this world?" Riku asked.

"Radiant Garden," Lea replied quietly, and then shrugged one shoulder. "It was called Hollow Bastion for a while, though."

Riku made a sharp noise then, looking surprised.

"I knew there was something familiar about it," he said, turning to look back up at the castle again. "I _have_ been here." He turned in a circle, shading his eyes again, and then frowning. "Boy, it's changed a lot in a couple years," he said. "There used to be nothing but a big upside down waterfall surrounding the castle." He looked at Kairi. "That was back before Sora and I..." He trailed off, then shook his head. "It was really fragmented back then," he said, like he didn't even want to own up to what he and Sora had done, and Lea sort of averted his eyes.

"It was the first world to fall to the darkness," he said, "so it was fragmented the longest." He cast his eyes back up the hill, then toward the purple sky beyond the castle keep, before he looked back at Riku and pressed his lips together. "I guess that's why it's still in such bad shape."

"There really is something familiar about this place," Kairi said, shading her eyes to look up at the castle, and Riku touched her shoulder.

"You've been here, too," he said, lowering his eyes for a moment. "That castle is where Xehanort's Heartless used my body to try and hurt you and Sora."

She closed her hand over his, and his face flushed as she shook her head.

"That's not what I mean," she said, frowning a little and then closing her fingers over the pendant she wore around her neck. "I do remember that," she said, "but this feels different, somehow. Can there be different kinds of nostalgia?"

Riku looked puzzled, then glanced at Lea, who just shook his head and shrugged.

"I dunno," Riku admitted. "I guess... I don't see why not. I'm not sure why you might be remembering something else, though."

She furrowed her brow and frowned, then looked up at the castle again.

"I'm not sure, either," she said, "but let's just keep going. It's probably just because the world looks so different than before."

Lea stared at her a moment, that echo of a memory tugging at the back of his mind again, fluttering like curtains in the wind but never quite solidifying into an image. He pushed it aside as they continued up the craggy trail toward the castle postern. It was hardly a road, fringed by high rocks and littered with debris; slabs of stone and broken rebar were piled around corners, stacked precariously--jagged, hulking shadows and pointed silhouettes. Cranes and excavation equipment were parked here, still and silent, giving the whole area a sort of lonesome, abandoned feeling. 'Hollow Bastion' they had called it, for many years, and in a way that name suited it better than 'Radiant Garden' did now. There was little radiance to it anymore, and the gardens were mostly gone, crushed beneath the waves of darkness that had torn the world to pieces and scattered it like ashes in the wind. Now it wasn't much but an empty shell of what it had once been: a sunken husk with a heart that struggled to continue beating.

Lea closed his fingers in the front of his shirt and pressed his fist against his heart as a pang of sympathy tugged at it. He and this world were largely the same, he thought. They had both fallen, both been lost, and both were now grappling with resuming life after losing everything. Were the corridors of his heart littered with broken stones and rebar, too?

They reached a crumbling stairway, and Kairi paused again, her hand closed around her pendant and her eyes fixed on something at the base of the stairs.

"Kairi?" Riku stopped and looked back at her, and she didn't seem to notice him. Her gaze was locked on a small patch of grass with a single flower blooming in the center of it, situated off to one side of the dusty broken stairs.

"This was... the central square," she said softly, and then turned to her left slowly, almost too smoothly, as though all her joints were oiled. "There... was a diamond in the middle, and..." She turned to look at Lea then, her expression drawn out between confusion and something like fear as she lifted a hand to touch her temple.

As soon as her eyes met his the memory solidified--bright sun, clear skies, a ring of flowers and two figures in the square--and no sooner had the image focused in his head did Kairi drop like a stone.

" _Kairi_ \--!"

Riku shot toward her so fast that he seemed to blur, catching her under the arms as she fainted dead away and taking to a knee with her. Lea snapped out of his unexpected memory fog and closed the distance between them quickly, crouching beside him.

"What happened?" he asked, looking at Kairi's slack face and then up to the way Riku's brow was drawn in vicious worry for her, pulled together like a snagged seam.

"I-I'm not sure," Riku stammered, brushing his hand across her forehead and then checking her pulse with two fingers. "She's breathing fine, and her pulse is fine, too." He looked up at Lea again, frowning deeply. "I don't feel any enemies nearby..."

Lea shook his head. "No, she wasn't hit with anything," he said. "She just kind of got this far-off look in her eyes and then fainted." He pressed his lips together. "Maybe she skipped breakfast."

"Lea this is _serious_."

"I'm _being_ serious," Lea said, rolling his eyes. "If her pulse is fine, and her breathing is fine, and she wasn't struck in the head or anything, maybe it's low blood sugar. That happens, you know?"

Riku shifted and slid one arm around Kairi's shoulders, the other beneath her knees, then stood up with her in his arms.

"Is there someplace we can just sit with her for a bit?" he asked. "Is there an actual town, or is the castle all there is?"

Lea got to his feet and gestured toward the stairs.

"Up and over that way," he said, "is the borough. Merlin's house is there."

"Come on, then," Riku said, heading up the stairs, and Lea followed, staring at Riku's back as he climbed upward. His shoulders were tense, and every move he made was just steeped in anxiety. Sometimes Riku reminded Lea of those fingertrap toys: the more he pulled himself in either direction, the more impossible it became to extract himself from this tangle of worry and restless disquiet. It was as though he was incapable of sitting still and just letting anything happen--he always had to shove his hands into the fray, which was why he always came out of everything with bloodied scratches and yellowing bruises all over his heart.

They moved through the shadowed bailey and then back out into the sunlight, and Lea jogged to catch up with Riku.

"You want me to take her?" he asked haltingly, feeling a bit useless. Of course he was worried about her, too--it wasn't normal to just suddenly pass out like that--but Riku never seemed able to do anything at any less than 450%.

Riku shook his head. "It's fine," he said, his voice low. "This isn't the first time I've carried her like this."

They descended the stairs and rounded a corner, and the borough came into view. The streets were a bit less broken here, the walls more stable, the shadows less deep. Lea pointed toward a patch of grass beneath a tree at the side of one of the little houses.

"We can probably just chill there for a bit," he said. "Unless you want to actually go find Merlin and see if he can figure out what's wrong with her."

"If she doesn't wake up soon, I want to," he said, shifting his grip as he ducked beneath the tree, "but for now I just wanna see if she wakes up on her own." He knelt down carefully and laid Kairi in the grass, his hand lingering on her face a moment before he glanced up at Lea. "What was she saying, before?" he asked. "About a diamond or something?"

Lea sat down in the grass and folded his legs up, resting his hands on his ankles.

"The bricks in the old central square," he said, frowning a little, "they made this diamond pattern."

Riku narrowed his eyes at him.

"You said this place used to not be creepy," he said. "You talked about how it was before... Before it fell." Something like grim realization broke over his face and his eyebrows drew together sharply. "The only way you could possibly know that, know what it was like before the darkness, is..." He shook his head. "Lea, why didn't you _tell_ us that this was your home world?"

His shoulders sagged, feeling too heavy for his spine, and he averted his eyes, reaching over to pull up a few blades of grass and twist them between his fingers.

"It shouldn't have mattered," he said. "The mission's more important than worrying about old ghosts here."

"Why didn't you ever come back here, though?" he asked. "You said before, that night on the beach, that home wasn't home anymore. What'd you mean?"

Lea looked at him, meeting his eyes, and then lowered his gaze to his lap. Riku's eyes were so intense, sometimes Lea worried that if he looked into them too long he would burn himself. He shook his head.

"Don't worry about it," he said, and then gave a wry smile. "It's not important."

"Lea, that's--"

Riku cut himself off when Kairi stirred and made a soft moaning noise, and he leaned over her as she brought her hand to her head.

"Riku?" she asked quietly, pressing the heel of her hand against her forehead as her eyes fluttered open. She squinted at him as though he were out of focus, then tried to sit up.

"Easy," Riku said, taking her shoulders and helping her upright. She shook her head, looking at him and then looking at Lea before she smiled a bit abashedly.

"I worried you," she said, "huh?"

"A little," Riku admitted, giving her a smile.

"Riku basically had an aneurysm," Lea snorted, and Riku shot him a dirty look.

"Sorry," Kairi said, letting her hands fall into her lap.

"What happened?" Riku asked, his hand still on her shoulder, and Kairi looked thoughtful for a moment.

"It was weird," Kairi said, touching her temple and then closing her hand around her necklace again. "I kept seeing these strange flashes, like fragments of memories I don't remember." She glanced up at Lea. "That nostalgic feeling got stronger and stronger the more we walked," she said, "and when we got to those stairs, it was like everything just sort of hit me at once."

She looked at Riku then, before lowering her eyes again, confusion etched into her expression.

"I kept seeing gardens," she said. "There were flowers everywhere, a big open square with all these colored flowers."

"That's what the square looked like, a long time ago," Lea said, and Kairi looked up at him.

"But how could I possibly know that?" she asked.

Lea furrowed his brow and tilted his head to the side a little, shaking his head.

"Don't you remember?" he asked, and she swallowed visibly, apprehension in her eyes.

"Remember _what_?" she asked, looking almost apologetic, as though she'd hurt someone's feelings somehow.

Lea lifted one hand and gestured around them, his expression puzzled.

"Kairi, this is _your_ home world, too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this is a bit late, gang. thanks for sticking with me for so long! i've still got lots more of this story to tell, so i hope you'll keep coming back! ♥
> 
> also, i know that technically there's a line in KH1 where Kairi tells Sora she's originally from Hollow Bastion but doesn't remember much, but it isn't part of the compulsory script, and i know a lot of people missed the line entirely. i think it's a lot more interesting this way, so... since 2.8 already made this fic slightly AU anyway, i'm rolling with Kairi NOT remembering.


	25. Restoration Committee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the search begins.

Kairi stared at Lea for a long moment and she was _certain_ that she heard the sound of a needle scratching across a record as everything in her brain just screeched to a halt.

"Wait, _what_?" she gasped, at the exact same moment Riku gasped the same thing, and she turned to look at him before looking back at Lea. "Lea, are you serious?" she asked, reaching one hand out like she wanted to grab him and tucking her legs up to one side so she could sit forward. "This is the world where I was born?"

Lea looked a little lost.

"You really don't remember?" he asked, and Kairi shook her head.

"No!" she said, touching her hand to her temple. "The earliest thing I can remember is waking up on Destiny Islands and being found and adopted by the mayor. I couldn't remember anything about where I was before that day."

"Sora and I used to pretend to be detectives," Riku said, "and try and find clues as to where she might have come from. We thought maybe she just had amnesia and was from a far part of the island or something. Of course, if she was from a whole other _world_ , then that explains why we never _found_ anything."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Kairi demanded, knowing it was a little bit unfair. How was Lea supposed to have known she didn't remember?

He bristled a little, hunching his shoulders.

" _I_ didn't know you didn't know," he insisted, and then pressed his lips together. "Honestly, I didn't even _remember_ until just now, anyway," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's not like we _knew_ one another back then."

Kairi pressed her lips together, her brow knitting up worriedly.

"If we didn't know each other," she said, her words slow and careful, like she was afraid she might trip over them, "how do you know this is where I come from?"

Lea rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I suddenly remembered something," he said, his eyes skirting down and away, and Kairi thought he almost looked _sorry_ , somehow. "When I was a kid, I used to have these frisbees, right?"

Riku arched one eyebrow at this, but said nothing.

"So I was throwing them around in the square one day," he went on. "I was trying to get I--" He stopped short, clearing his throat. "Trying to get my friend to catch them and throw them back, but he was being a butthead and wouldn't."

"A butthead, huh?" Riku snickered, and Lea gave him a narrow look.

"Yes, I'm sure you're familiar with how to be a butthead."

"Rude."

" _Anyway_ ," Kairi cut in, and Lea shook his head.

"Right, anyway, I threw one at my friend's head, but he ducked," he said, "and so the frisbee went sailing all the way across the square. I went running after it, and it had landed in this little patch of grass near the edge." He paused briefly, getting a faraway look in his eyes for a moment. "It was really sunny that day, I remember," he said, "and as I was looking for the frisbee, I saw two people standing in the grass. There was an old woman in a giant sunhat, and a little girl." He looked at Kairi then. "She was making crowns out of the little flowers that grew in the grass, and when I asked if she could hand me my frisbee, she just kind of laughed and draped the crown of flowers around it before she gave it back." He smiled a little, and Kairi felt something warm bloom in her chest. "I asked her what her name was," he said, "and she said 'Kairi'. So I said thanks for the flowers, and I put the crown on my head and took my frisbee and ran back to the square." He chuckled and shook his head. "I dunno why exactly I just remembered that," he admitted. "I guess... memory's a funny thing."

Kairi smiled widely at him. "That sounds like something I would do," she said, and then giggled. "And something you would do."

Lea straightened his back where he sat. "I wore that crown for the whole rest of the day," he said proudly. "My friend made fun of me the whole time."

"Wow, what a butthead," she laughed, and turned to see Riku laughing, too. That warmth in her chest now radiated through her whole body, and she closed her fingers around her pendant. "So... who was the old woman in the hat?"

Lea shrugged. "I dunno, your grandma, I guess?" he ventured, and Kairi's eyes widened dramatically.

"My... grandma?"

"Well..." Lea's eyes winged toward the sky and he put a hand on his chin. "I mean, she was an old lady, and she seemed to be like babysitting you, so grandma would be my first guess."

"I have... a grandma?" Kairi looked absolutely thunderstruck, and she reached blindly toward Riku, who extended his hand to take hers as she sort of groped at the air. She turned to look at him then. "Riku, I have a _grandma_!" she gasped, and Riku looked surprised. He blinked at her, seeming unsure what to say, and Kairi squeezed his hand, smiling brightly. "I have a _grandma_!" she said again, and looked at Lea. "Could... could we look for her?" she asked, and then looked at Riku. "I mean, I know we're here on a mission, and I know how important that is, but..." She shook her head. "It's... it's probably a longshot anyway; that was like more than ten years ago, she might not even be alive anymore. But if she is, I--"

"Of course we can look for her," Riku said before Kairi could continue rambling, his smile wide and a little wistful. "This is your _family_ we're talking about, here."

Kairi wondered for a moment what the almost sad, haunted look behind Riku's eyes was as he said that, but it was gone as soon as it was there, and she smiled at him as he got to his feet.

"I'm sure we can ask around," he said, still holding her hand and giving it a tug to help her stand up. He looked at Lea. "Right?" he asked, and Lea looked a little surprised.

"Wh-why are you asking me?" He shook his head. "You're the master, this sort of thing is your call, not mine."

"But you know the people who live here, right?" Kairi asked brightly, and her smile suddenly faded a bit when Lea blanched a shade or two at the question.

"I..." He hesitated, then scratched at his cheek, looking uncomfortable.

She suddenly felt selfish. Kairi didn't know anything about Lea's past, or what might have happened to him here. She didn't know what sort of home he'd grown up in, or what kind of relationship he might have had with anyone who lived here. He had said that this world had been the first to fall to Darkness; had he seen it happen? Was that when he had lost his heart? What sort of trauma did this place hold for him?

"I-it's okay," she said sharply, shaking her head, and he looked at her then, puzzled. She met his eye with sympathy in her gaze. "It's okay, Lea, you don't have to talk to anyone if you don't want to."

Riku seemed to pick up on her realization, because he squeezed her hand before he released it, and then gave Lea a nod.

"She's right," he said. "You can just hang out for a bit, while we do this."

Lea rubbed the back of his neck and frowned a bit, then gave Riku an uncertain look.

"You're sure?" he asked, still seated in the grass. "I don't just wanna bail on you guys."

"You're not bailing," Riku assured him. "You've probably got your own stuff to take care of here, anyway, right? We can just catch up with you later, it's fine."

Still looking a little unsure, Lea hesitated, then gave a nod.

"All right," he said. "I'll meet you back here in this sector in a few hours, then?"

"Sounds good," Kairi said. "Be safe, okay?"

"I will," Lea said with a soft laugh, and then he wagged a finger at Riku. "Ah, you guys probably wanna avoid the district on the west side of the castle," he said. "The restoration committee has replanted one of the larger gardens over there; Riku, it'll drive your allergies nuts, trust me."

Riku made a flustered noise. "W-we'll go wherever we have to, to find her grandma," he insisted, and Kairi just squeezed his hand.

"We'll look there last," she said with finality, and then smiled at Lea. "Thanks."

She held Lea's gaze a moment, wondering what was going through his head right then as his eyes skirted away almost abashedly, and then she gave Riku's hand a tug, turning and heading down the cobbled street toward the square. Part of her was still reeling. She had just learned so much in such a short time--she had thought she would never learn where she'd come from, that she would never know who her real family was. Though the mayor of the Destiny Islands had been very good to her and she had wanted for little throughout her youth, Kairi still felt a sense of emptiness, without knowing where her home world was, or who her real parents were. Now she had at least one part of that puzzle: Radiant Garden was her home world. Her _home world_! She never thought she would ever learn that!

"This feels so strange," she said sidelong to Riku, their hands still linked as they walked through the little streets, past a house that was still obviously being rebuilt. "I hadn't been here since any of the restoration anyway, but... I thought maybe something would feel _familiar_ or something."

"You don't remember any of this, even seeing it now?" Riku asked, no derision in his voice, and Kairi pressed her lips together.

"Not... exactly," she said, touching her temple with a frown. "It all feels like... trying to remember a dream. I can remember little things, irrelevant things, like..." She looked up at the castle, squinting. "I remember climbing steps, up toward that main door you can see," she said, "but I don't remember why or what I was doing there. All I remember are the stairs and the door, and I didn't even know where the door was until now. There were..." She closed her eyes and concentrated a moment. "Iron gates. White iron gates. By the stairs. I think they led to gardens, but all I can see are the gates." She tapped her chin and furrowed her brow a little. "I remember... hands," she said softly, looking down at her fingers laced with Riku's. "Someone's hand, holding mine, walking. I remember being told stories, but I don't really remember what they were about, most of them, and I remember spending time in a library." She looked up at him, her mouth quirked a little to one side. "That's about all," she said.

"Do you think anything more will come back if we look around more?" Riku asked, his expression hopeful, and Kairi smiled. She knew how badly he wanted this for her, too.

"Maybe," she said, squeezing his hand. "If we find my grandma, I bet she can tell me all kinds of things."

"We'll definitely look as long as we can," Riku said firmly. "Even if we have to pause the search to go and talk to whoever's in charge of this world, in the castle, we can keep looking afterward. We can come back to this world as often as time allows, until we find her."

Kairi smiled fondly up at Riku, that warm feeling radiating through her chest again. She knew very well just what lengths Riku would go to for her, and though she wished he would take a little more time for him _self_ , it was reassuring, comforting, to know that he was willing to do so much for her. It made her feel special, made her feel loved, and she paused in her steps to lean up on her tiptoes and kiss his cheek gently.

"Thank you," she said, giggling as his face turned scarlet and he brought his free hand up to cup his cheek, completely unsure how to react to this gesture.

"You-you're welcome," he said stiffly, his eyes wide and trained on the ground in front of him for a moment, and though he was clearly feeling pretty awkward at the moment, his grip on her hand never faltered.

They made their way through the marketplace, talking to a couple of shop owners but none of them had worked there before the fall. In fact, they seemed to get _confused_ when Riku asked about a time twelve years ago, before the world had fallen. Kairi had always kind of wondered what _happened_ to the people when a world fell. Riku had told her that everyone lost their hearts, and most of them just became Shadow Heartless, but did that mean they didn't remember anything? Was that time just _missing_? Did they not even realize that more than ten years had _passed_? After the first shop owner had gotten a bit belligerent at the idea that the 'disaster' that had befallen Radiant Garden had been that long ago, they decided to be a little more careful with their questions.

When their inquiries couldn't be answered by the shop owners, they turned their sights on the people milling about the marketplace. Kairi spotted a woman with dark hair leaning against a partially crumbled wall in what looked like it had once been another shop.

"She doesn't look like she's immediately busy," she said, tugging Riku's hand. "Come on, let's go talk to her."

Riku looked a little uncomfortable with all this _talking to people_ they seemed to be doing, but hurried along with Kairi toward the woman, who was dressed in a dark vest and dark pants. She had a bottle of water in one hand and her other arm was folded around her midsection where she leaned against the wall.

"Excuse me," Kairi said, releasing Riku's hand and approaching the woman cautiously. "Sorry, could I ask you something? We're looking for someone, and I wonder if you could help us out."

The woman turned to look at her, her big brown eyes curious, and she smiled a bit.

"Sure," she said, setting the water bottle down on top of the crumbling wall and pointing away from the building. "But let's talk out there, this building still isn't stable. We're almost done clearing the rubble, but the whole foundation is gonna need to be reinforced before we can start rebuilding this one."

"You're part of a construction team?" Riku asked curiously, and the woman squared her shoulders a little.

"I'm on the restoration committee," she said proudly. 

"Are you guys in charge of _all_ the reconstruction?" Kairi asked, looking impressed.

"We've been working on rebuilding Radiant Garden for a while now," the woman said, "but there's still a lot of work to do. We get a decent amount of volunteers helping us out at any given time, but not everyone is able to help with the construction part, unfortunately, so it's taken a long time to get even this far." She dusted her hand across the thighs of her pants, then offered it to Kairi. Kairi shook her hand eagerly. "Name's Tifa, Tifa Lockhart," she said. 

"I'm Kairi," Kairi said, and then gestured at Riku. "This is Riku. It's nice to meet you!"

"Are you two not from around here?" She glanced up toward the sky absently, then back down at Riku and Kairi. "I know pretty much everyone in town, and I've never seen you before. We don't get too many off-world visitors."

Riku gave a start. "Wait, you know about other worlds?" he blurted, and then looked like he kind of wanted to slap a hand over his mouth.

"Well, sure," Tifa said. "I mean, some of us do, anyway. The average citizen doesn't know, but us on the restoration committee, we're kind of... like government workers, I guess you could say. We don't work in the castle, but we're privy to a lot more than the general public. My pal Cid is the one who built the first Gummi ship, after all." She winked. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me; we know inter-world travel is kind of a hush-hush business." She put her hands on her hips. "So what can I help you with? You said you're looking for someone?"

"Yes," Kairi said, making fists with her hands and worrying at her lower lip. "The trouble is, I'm... not entirely sure who we're looking for."

"Come again?" Tifa arched one eyebrow.

"We're looking for my grandmother," Kairi said, frowning a bit, "but I can't remember her name."

Tifa tilted her head, looking terribly confused, and Kairi hefted a flustered sort of sigh.

"Kairi was taken to another world when she was real young," Riku piped up, and Kairi glanced at him. "She has very few memories of being here, so she's hoping to find her grandmother to help piece some of her memories together. We know there was an old woman who was taking care of her while she lived here, but that's _all_ we know."

Kairi breathed a sigh of relief as Riku explained. She wasn't sure why she had suddenly clammed up like that; there was a strange emotion clawing at her insides, something relentless and filled with energy, something torn and a little lost and confused. She wasn't sure what it was, but it was scrambling her thoughts and making her fidget, so she was grateful when Riku managed to say what she couldn't quite collect on her tongue.

"Was this before the Fall?" Tifa asked, and both Kairi and Riku nodded grimly. "Hrmm..." Tifa rubbed a fingertip against her lower lip in thought, frowning a little. "I'm not sure what to suggest," she said. "That was over a decade ago, though a lot of the people here don't seem to remember. When the world fell, a lot of them were lost _with_ it, so time essentially stopped for them, until the world was restored a couple years ago." She folded her arms across her chest. "A few friends of mine and I, we were whisked away elsewhere, too, when the world fell, which is why we're aware of the amount of time that's passed, but all the memories we lost, we were able to get back."

"You lost memories, too?" Kairi asked, and Tifa nodded.

"Yeah, for a long time, we couldn't even remember the name of this world," she said. "Someone started calling it Hollow Bastion, when it was still fragmented, and that name stuck for a long time--for _years_. We just couldn't remember the real name, not until recently, when a computer program was engaged that showed us some old footage of the world before the Fall. After that, everything we'd lost, we got it back." She frowned a little. "At least, I _think_ we got it all back. I guess if anything was still missing, we wouldn't necessarily know."

"That's the trouble with memories, huh?" Kairi said with a chuckle, wringing her hands a little. "Miss Tifa, do... you think I could watch the footage?" she asked then, giving Tifa a hopeful look.

"What, of Radiant Garden before the Fall?" she asked, and then tilted her chin a little. "I don't see why not. If it helped us, it might help you, too." She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "Let me check in with my crew here and I'll take you up to the lab under the castle," she said. "The video isn't long, I can set it up for you."

"Thank you so much!" Kairi gasped, elated, her eyes bright and her smile wide as she brought her hands to her face. "This means a lot to me, so I really appreciate your help!"

"No problem," Tifa said with a smile. "If this is your hometown, then you're one of us. We've gotta look out for our own, right?"

Kairi watched her jog back to the job site and disappear beyond some of the rubble, and then she turned to look excitedly at Riku.

"Did you hear that?" she asked, bouncing where she stood. "If they got _their_ lost memories back, maybe I can, too!"

Riku took her shoulder and gave her a smile and a nod.

"I sure hope so," he said. "I know how important this is to you."

Kairi reached for his hand again, and he hesitated only a moment before giving it to her. She squeezed both hands around his and took a deep breath, holding it briefly before letting it out in a sigh.

This was really happening. Maybe she was going to get all of those lost memories back. Maybe she was finally going to know about her parents, about this place where she'd been born, about her grandmother. She was a little bit surprised when she realized that part of her was a bit sad that Lea wasn't here; something in her wanted him nearby when she got these memories back, and she wasn't quite certain why. Maybe it was because he'd been the one to tell her this was where she was from, or maybe she just wanted both him and Riku at her side for something so important. She wished Sora were here, too, for that matter. Sora, who had kept her heart safe for her when she'd lost it, Sora who had fought so hard to find her. Sora, Riku, and now Lea, they had all done so much for her, and she wished that all of them could be here to share this moment with her, when she watched this video of her home and what it had looked like before it had been fractured. She didn't know what would happen when she did.

Lea was already uneasy here, though, she knew. She didn't want to make things any harder for him by having him see images of the way things were before the world had fallen; if that was when he'd lost his heart, then those images might have been really traumatic for him. Lea was just as bad about voicing his pain as Riku was, she had learned, and so maybe it was better that Lea wasn't here to see this.

She looked up when Tifa jogged back over to them and pointed to the east.

"Ready to go?" she asked. "It's a bit of a hike, unfortunately; we haven't been able to finish clearing the rubble in the old square enough to redo the streets there, so we'll have to go up the hill through the restoration site, to the postern."

"That's fine," Kairi said. "I'm ready!"

"Me too," Riku said. "Lead the way."

Kairi fell into step behind Tifa, and as they made their way back through the town and down the steps where she'd first fainted, Kairi could only feel her anticipation growing with each step. What secrets would be unlocked when they got to the lab in the castle? What memories would return to her when she watched this video? She couldn't wait to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaaa i'm so sorry this update took so long. i had a super stressful few months and like my whole brain was imploding, so this project sort of fell by the wayside. things are looking a bit better now, though, so i'm trying to get back into the swing of things. thanks for your patience!!! ♥


	26. Flower Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is an unexpected reunion.

Lea had to admit that the restoration committee had done a bang-up job with what they'd been given. Entire sectors of Radiant Garden had been reduced to rubble, and with less than two dozen official members, the committee had cleared away most of it to make way for new construction to begin. Some areas of town had been restored in fairly good condition, but evidence of the fall of the world was still apparent everywhere you looked, from the cracked cobbled streets to the crumbling stone stairs to the battered building facades. This place had been beautiful once, and Lea supposed he believed it could one day be beautiful again, but for now it was an open wound, still raw and bleeding, struggling to heal.

He knew how it felt.

It wasn't hard to stick to the shadows as he walked. All those years working for the Organization had given him all the training he would ever need to stay out of sight and out of mind. He knew how to disappear, whether he was in a crowded square or an empty alley, and though Radiant Garden was hardly the bustling town it had once been, Lea kept his head down and his guard up. He had no desire to run into anyone who might have recognized him as that upstart kid who had lived here all those years ago; those were ghosts he wasn't ready to confront yet. He felt a bit guilty, leaving Riku and Kairi to their errand, but the thought of facing anyone he had known more than a decade ago left him uncomfortable and clammy like fever. This world was in the state it was in because of the Organization, and he had been a _part_ of that. Maybe he hadn't had anything to do with the Fall, but he had pledged his loyalty to those responsible, and in his eyes that was just as condemnable. How could he face _any_ of them, with all this blood on his hands?

Making his way to the back side of the castle, Lea cast his eyes over the remains of the fountain courtyard. There was still water in the lowest basin, but none of the fountains were running now. The stone walls were crumbling and covered in ivy and moss, and when the wind blew through the courtyard it picked up a dozen dried leaves from one of the upper platforms and swirled them about, sending them twisting into the air and over the wall to disappear. Lea had a feeling the fountains hadn't run for a very long time, and the water in the basin was likely just from the rain.

Still, it was a little nostalgic. He remembered spending lazy summer afternoons here, with his pants rolled up to his knees and his socks and shoes discarded on the steps, trying to convince Isa he could run on water if he just learned to run fast enough. Of course he'd never succeeded in doing anything but splashing so much his clothes got soaked, but it was the laughter he remembered, much more than the soggy pants.

Moving to the edge of the basin, Lea peered down at the water and made a face. It was silty, brown, not at all like the clean, clear water that had cascaded into the skies when he was a child. So it _was_ just rain, then. He gave a hefty sigh that deflated him a little, like a mylar balloon with a slow leak. He should have known that nothing about Radiant Garden would be the same as he remembered it; it had been more than ten years, and the world had collapsed under the weight of Darkness--it was a miracle it was as intact as it was! It made him ache a little, though, to know that nothing was the same anymore. The square was gone, the castle was in ruins, and now he saw that even the fountains were crumbling in neglect. The restoration committee could only do so much, he guessed, but the ache remained all the same. This place felt hollowed out, gutted, so that only the shell remained, and all the heart was gone. Lea supposed that, in a way, that was exactly what had happened. Just as he had lost his heart and become a husk of the person he'd once been, Radiant Garden had folded into the Darkness and left behind nothing but the framework of its former beauty.

Lea had gotten his heart back, and he truly believed he was on his way back to being the person he'd been so long ago, but he wondered if Radiant Garden would ever be the way it was. Darkness left a multitude of scars in its wake, but the world's were far more visible than Lea's were.

He stooped over and picked up a little rock, broken away from one of the walls. Tossing it up and catching it in his palm again, he looked out over the water in the courtyard, then hurled the rock as hard as he could, up toward one of the upper platforms. It hit its mark with a clatter, and Lea heard a sharp gasp to his right. He turned and saw a figure crouched in the corner of the courtyard, her bright green eyes wide in surprise as she rose back to her feet, and he fought the urge to just turn and run without saying a single thing to her. He didn't want to talk to anyone, but he didn't want to be _rude_. The woman was young, a little younger than he was, he guessed, with long brown hair in a twisted rope down her back. She brushed off the front of her pale pink dress and gave him a smile, and Lea looked at her, hangdog.

"S-sorry," he stammered, waving one hand, "I didn't know there was anyone here."

"I didn't either," she said, shaking her head, and her long hair swished across her back. "I was just checking on the flowers," she said then, gesturing behind her at the little patch of wildflowers near the wall. "They're everywhere anymore, just growing wild. Leon says they're weeds, but I disagree. Just because something grows without you putting it there, that doesn't make it a weed. Even flowers have ambitions."

Lea chuckled a little.

"I guess," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. Leon? He didn't recognize that name, but he realized he recognized this girl. He hadn't really known her, back before the Fall, but he had seen her in the square every Sunday, selling flowers from a basket she kept hooked over her arm. They had spoken a few times, though never about anything substantial, that he recalled. Aerith, he believed her name had been.

"Are you all right?" she asked, tilting her head a little, and Lea snapped back to the present.

"What? Yes," he said quickly, nodding, and then he cleared his throat. "No, I'm fine," he said. "I'm sorry I startled you."

Aerith shook her head.

"It's okay," she said, giving him a scrutinizing look. "I didn't expect anyone else to be here; the courtyard isn't exactly the pretty park it used to be."

"Tell me about it," Lea said with a little more bitterness than he really intended to.

"You look a bit lost, though," the girl said, dusting her palms together. "Were you trying to get somewhere?"

"Oh, I..." Lea hesitated, frowning. "We're all trying to get somewhere, I imagine," he said, and she laughed softly.

"A philosopher, I see."

"I'm just a little distracted," he hedged, forcing a laugh. "I've got a lot on my mind."

Aerith smiled, tucking a curled lock of hair behind her ear.

"Care to unload some of it?" she asked gently. "I'm a good listener."

Lea made a sharp, wordless noise in the back of his throat.

"Wh-- I... I don't even know you," he stammered bluntly, waving his hand, and the girl laughed.

"I'm sorry, how rude of me," she said, giving a little bow. "I'm Aerith, it's nice to meet you. Although..." She tapped her chin. "I feel like I've met you before. Do you live around here?"

"No," he said with no flourish. "I've... just got one of those faces, you know?"

"Mm, I suppose," Aerith said, not quite sounding convinced. She smoothed the front of her dress and then looked back up at him, something curious in her eyes.

Lea took half a step back. What was it about girls? He kind of felt like they could see right through him, somehow. Kairi always seemed able to tell when he wasn't being sincere. Thank Light Larxene hadn't had the same radar, at least.

Clearing his throat, Lea straightened his spine a little, figuring Aerith probably wasn't going to be satisfied until he unloaded _something_ off his mind. She seemed genuinely concerned, though, so he couldn't really fault her; it was rare to find someone who just honestly gave a damn about a complete stranger.

"Actually, you know, now that I think on it," he began, absently scratching his cheek, "I'm wondering if maybe you _can_ help me with something."

"I'll certainly try," she said, and Lea pressed his lips together in thought.

"Well, see... I'm kind of looking for someone," he said, "but I'm not actually sure who I'm looking for."

One of Aerith's thin eyebrows inched toward her hairline.

"Is that some weird attempt at a pick-up line?" she asked, and Lea felt his ears go red.

"What? _No_!" He shook his head forcefully. "Light, no, I'm not-- That isn't-- _No_!" He waved both hands sort of placatingly. "Look I'm not being a creep, I'm actually looking for somebody."

Aerith laughed a little at his flustered display, then nodded for him to go on.

"A friend of mine is looking for her grandmother," he explained carefully. "She was separated from her a long time ago, though, and lost a lot of her memories."

"The Fall?" Aerith asked grimly, and Lea felt his breath catch in his throat. Just hearing the words made him uneasy somehow, and he fidgeted where he stood.

"Yeah," he said, nodding slowly. "She was actually sent to another world, and didn't remember anything about this place."

"A lot of people were separated then," she said, her voice low and even. "I was sent to another world, too, along with some of my friends. We didn't remember much about Radiant Garden either, for a long time. It happens."

"She wants to find her grandmother, though," Lea said. "After all this time, finding out she used to live here, used to have family here, she wants to reconnect with that, but she just doesn't remember her name." He sighed audibly, frowning. "So I'm not even sure where to _start_ looking." Lea met Aerith's eyes and lifted his eyebrows inquiringly. "I guess it's kind of a long shot," he said, "but if you have any ideas, I'd be grateful."

Aerith brought a hand to her face, pressing her knuckle against her lip as she thought for a moment.

"Well, I know a lot of people from town," she said. "I sell flowers on the weekends, and it's a good way to meet people, but you're right, without a name or anything to go on, it's kind of a needle in a haystack."

Lea waved a hand, shaking his head.

"It's fine," he said. "Like I said, it was kind of a long shot."

"Actually..." Aerith narrowed one eye, like she was trying very hard to conjure an image in her head. "Actually, there might be someone I know." She looked at Lea then, pressing her fingertips together. "There's an older lady who lives in the next sector over," she said. "I help her with her groceries sometimes. She's mentioned a granddaughter once or twice, but said she hadn't seen her in a very long time." She furrowed her brow a bit. "A lot of people were lost, when the world fell," she said. "Some of them just... never came back, you know? So that's just what I figured had happened, but it's worth a look, don't you think?"

Lea's eyes had widened, his lips parting a little in surprise. He had really only asked because she seemed so worried about him, but it seemed like maybe she actually had a lead for him to follow up on! He guessed it was true that you never knew until you asked.

"Definitely!" he said, a grin breaking across his face. "I can't believe my shot in the dark actually hit something!"

"I could give you her address," Aerith said, pointing off to their right. "She lives in the northeast sector, not far from the old hardware store."

"Oh, I know where that is," Lea said, and then held up one finger to silently ask her to wait one moment. 

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a little memo pad, a pen caught in the spiral binding. Working for the Organization had taught some useful things, he had to admit, not the least of which was to always keep a pen and paper on him. You never knew when you might need to jot something down. He offered the pad to Aerith, and she flipped it open to write the address down. When she handed it back, Lea glanced over her neat, looped handwriting and smiled. Kairi was really going to be excited about this.

"I hope that's helpful," Aerith said with a smile, and Lea tucked the pad back into his pocket, grinning broadly at her.

"It's a hundred percent more to go on than I had ten minutes ago," he said. "I really appreciate it."

"Don't mention it," she said, shaking her head. "I'm glad I could help."

Lea hesitated a moment, then fidgeted and pointed over his shoulder.

"Well, I should get going, then," he said. "I'm meeting up with my friends back in another sector."

"Go on, then, don't keep them waiting," Aerith said, laughing gently.

Lea turned and started to jog back the way he'd come, turning to wave behind him as he did.

"Thanks for your help, Aerith," he called behind him.

"You're welcome," she said back. "Maybe I'll see you around town sometime, all right, Lea?"

Lea made it around the corner and then stopped short, his eyebrows knitting together to create a pronounced crinkle between them. Standing still for just a moment, he turned to glance over his shoulder back toward the fountain court, frowning as he realized he had never given Aerith his name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aerith is all-knowing. 8| sorry this one's a bit short--the next chapter will be much longer, i promise!


	27. Can You Hear Me Now?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Riku makes some new friends, and Kairi watches TV.

"Watch your step here," Tifa warned as they rounded a corner along the path. "Ugh, this whole trail is such a mess. I'm amazed no one's managed to get really hurt trying to get up to the castle yet."

Riku frowned a little, taking Kairi's hand to help her over an unstable pile of rocks, and then looked at Tifa.

"Not to be rude, but shouldn't clearing this be a priority?" he asked. "I mean, I know shops and houses are important, but this does seem kind of dangerous."

"There are very few people who can drive the machinery," Tifa explained, gesturing to the parked excavators in an alcove as they passed. "Out of everyone on the committee, Cid, Cloud, and I are the only ones licensed, and we just haven't had the time to train more people." She hopped over a crack in the trail and then turned over her shoulder to frown at Riku and Kairi. "People don't quite understand," she said. "All they can really see are their own problems, a lot of the time: my roof is caving in, my shop foundation is cracked, my plumbing hasn't been repaired yet. We wind up fixing smaller problems just to keep the peace."

"I take it explanations have fallen on deaf ears, then?" Riku asked, and Tifa sighed.

"We keep hoping that we'll get through to people," she said, "but the fact is, when you walk into your house and there's a big hole in the floor, it's hard to remember there are other priorities, I guess." She kicked a rock out of the way, hooking her thumbs into her pockets. "We fix a house, then try and come back to this, and then we get another complaint that someone's attic collapsed. Rinse, repeat. We just don't have enough manpower to make the progress we want to. People want solutions, but the restoration committee is comprised of volunteers. We can't _pay_ anyone for their work, so we're a bit hard up."

"You would think that people would want to help get their home back to normal," Kairi said, her voice small, and Tifa gave a soft, bitter laugh through her nose.

"People want their home back to normal," she agreed, "but they want somebody else to fix it for them. Pay a contractor and the job gets done, but rely on unpaid labor and you're gonna be waiting a long time for results, unfortunately."

They made their way around another bend in the trail, and as the path that led up to the castle came into view, Riku paused a moment to stare at it. The castle was so much _bigger_ up close. He remembered thinking that Notre Dame was huge when he first saw it, but this structure dwarfed it, its towers rising hundreds of feet into the air, cranes jutting out of the sides like great bony arms. There was something a little eerie about it, and he wasn't sure if it was the way the stones looked like patchwork where some of the bricks had crumbled away, or if it was the skeletal scaffolding that crawled up the towers, but the castle had an almost ominous presence about it.

Maybe it was just the memories of what had transpired in this castle two years ago. Riku knew that the spirit of Xehanort's Heartless was still lurking somewhere in the depths of his heart--he could still feel it sometimes, when anger or despair reared their ugly heads. The Seeker of Darkness was like a splinter lodged deep within him, buried in the darker shadows of who he was and reminding him that no amount of good intentions could undo the past. His voice echoed inside Riku's head on sleepless nights, whispering condemnation, and no matter how many times he told himself he had _beaten_ the Heartless and wasn't that spoiled, angry child anymore, it ever seemed to silence him. Riku wondered from time to time if he would ever truly be alone with his thoughts again.

He was jolted suddenly from his thoughts when a sharp keening noise rang through the air, but before he could ask what that had been, a bolt of white-hot pain lanced through his body. Riku let out a cry as he was tossed up a good three feet off the ground, and he heard Kairi yell his name before the earth rose back up to meet him. Landing hard on the dusty ground, Riku shook his head as stars danced in his vision, and suddenly Kairi was at his side, her hands on his shoulder and arm.

"Riku!" she gasped, brushing his hair from his eyes and then taking his face in both hands. He attempted to focus on her, his eyes spinning a little. "Riku, talk to me!"

"What in the worlds was _that_?" he groaned, sitting up carefully, his voice strained. He wasn't hurt, but he'd gotten the wind knocked out of him. Kairi withdrew her hands as he pressed his palm against his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut a moment. "Ugh, I feel like I just did the worst bellyflop ever."

"You were suddenly surrounded by these rings of white!" Kairi said, her hands sort of fluttering around him like worried hummingbirds. "And then you were thrown up in the air--"

"It's the security system," Tifa said sharply, whirling when the keening noise sounded again. "I thought it had been shut down--!"

"Security system?" Kairi echoed, looking up at her. "What security system?"

Before she could answer, the keening noise rang out again, and a bright white circle of light appeared beneath Riku. Without bothering to announce herself, Tifa lunged forward and grabbed the front of Riku's vest, hauling him to his feet just in time to avoid another series of white rings as they rose from the ground around the spot he'd been sitting. Still a little disoriented from the initial blast, Riku staggered as she pulled him toward her, snapping his arms up for balance.

"I'll explain later," she said, taking his shoulders and spinning him to face the castle again. "Just _run_. It's targeting _you_ for some reason."

Riku officially hated today. 

Reeling as he was shoved forward, he pinwheeled his arms and somehow managed to find his balance. He twisted to look for Kairi, who darted to his side and pushed on his arm.

"Let's go!" she urged. The ground beneath him lit up again, and Riku dived forward, rolling out of the way and then back to his feet. He took off at a run, slowing only to make sure Tifa and Kairi were right behind him.

"Can't you just shut it down?" he called as Tifa caught up, and she shook her head, her hair whipping around her face.

"Not from here," she said. "There's no remote access in this area--we'll have to get to the postern. I can shut it off from there."

"Why did it only start up now?" Kairi asked breathlessly, her sneakers pounding the dusty earth as they ran. "We've been here for at least an hour and a half!"

"The system is set up in multiple sectors of the world," Tifa said, and then made a sharp noise. "Riku, left side!"

Riku twisted suddenly to avoid getting his arm caught in another series of rings, the strange electronic whine of the security system filling his head. They were nearly to the castle gates; they could make it, right?

"I thought it had been shut down completely," Tifa said then, "but this section must have been missed."

"Why is it only targeting _me_?" Riku demanded. He supposed he was glad Kairi apparently wasn't in any danger, but this kind of sucked!

"I don't know!" Tifa cried. "It was calibrated when the world was still overrun with Heartless, to identify energies that weren't from this world and eliminate them. But aren't you and Kairi originally from here?"

"Riku's not," Kairi said worriedly. "That must be why it's latched onto him!"

"Keep running," Tifa shouted as Riku dove forward again, the ground lighting up beneath his feet and the white rings crackling with energy as they rose toward the sky. "When we get to the postern I'll shut it down, so just stay out of the rings until I do!"

"Easy for _you_ to say!" Riku snarled, rolling back to his feet and rushing forward again.

They made it to the cobbled postern, the dust giving way to brick, and Tifa dashed toward a knot of pipes and wires that jutted out of one of the walls. Riku paused for a moment to try and catch his breath, but his respite was short lived; the keening noise of the security system cut brightly through the quiet of the afternoon again, and he groaned as he leapt out of the glowing circle on the ground. He didn't want to _rush_ Tifa, but he couldn't keep this up forever!

"Almost got it!" he heard Tifa call out, and the electronic humming sound suddenly died away. "There!"

The glowing spot under Riku's feet faded with the noise, and Riku just collapsed to the ground and rolled onto his back, panting.

"That... was awful," he gasped, spreading his arms on the bricks and closing his eyes, his lungs burning and his pulse pounding in his ears. Riku was in good shape, but he wasn't built for distance sprinting. He was almost as fast as Lea was in short bursts, but it had been a while since he'd had to really run for his life like that.

He heard footsteps approach him, and opened one eye as Kairi sank to her knees beside him, also breathing heavily, her hair looking windblown and her cheeks flushed.

"Are you all right?" she asked, leaning forward onto her hands. "You hit the ground pretty hard that first drop."

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said with a smile, "just worn out, now."

"I'm so sorry about that," Tifa said, walking over to them and folding her arms around her middle. Her expression was a little hangdog. "We haven't had any Heartless here for a while, and I guess nobody bothered to make sure the system was fully shut down."

"Don't worry about it," Riku said, pushing himself up to a seated position and folding his legs up. "I'd rather have it still be operational when you don't need it than for it to have not worked when you did." He gave Tifa a hint of a smile. "No harm no foul, okay?"

She hefted a sigh, still looking a little guilty, but she nodded.

"That's fair," she said. "I'm glad you're all right." She leaned over and offered him her hand, which he took, and was a little surprised at how easily she hauled him back to his feet. Looking at Kairi then, Tifa lifted her eyebrows. "Wanna go watch that video now?"

Kairi nodded. "Yeah, I think that's enough aerobics for one day," she said, and pumped one fist into the air. "Let's do this!"

Riku had to admit he was a little curious about this video himself. Would it trigger some sort of memory rush for Kairi? It wouldn't _hurt_ her, would it? Tifa hadn't said anything about the returned memories causing anyone any distress. They headed down a rounded staircase and through a doorway into the back of the castle. The door led into a dimly lit corridor, and Riku gestured for Kairi to walk ahead of him, behind Tifa, so he could bring up the rear. A few steps down and they came to a fork in the hallway, and as Tifa turned to the right, Riku found himself gazing down the obscured corridor to the left.

"What's down that way?" he asked, eyes a little narrow as the overhead lights flickered eerily.

"Nothing, actually," Tifa said, making a gesture to either side with one hand. "There's a whole weird maze of these hallways down here, but nobody's quite sure why. It took us all a few times getting lost before we got the knack for how to get to the study." She hung another right, glancing over her shoulder at them. "A couple of the routes are actually collapsed," she said. "We have to assume that happened when the world fell, but what's weird is the collapsed sections seem vestigial, like redundant corridors that go to the same place as the ones next to them." She shrugged and turned to face forward again. "This castle was built a long time ago, though," she said, "so who knows what the architect was trying to accomplish?"

"It's a little creepy," Kairi said, rubbing her arms as they made a left and went down a few more stairs. "Like something from a scary movie." She paused in front of a tangled mess of rebar and crumbled concrete, and Tifa turned to gesture at it.

"This is one of those redundant hallways," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "You'll see the other side of it once we turn the corner up ahead. It really doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe it was just to discourage invaders or something," Riku postulated as they turned a few more times and went down another half flight of stairs. Turning to the left, he looked up and saw what definitely looked like the other side of the collapsed corridor. "Give somebody enough options and they're bound to get overwhelmed," he said, and Tifa nodded as they walked past the mess into a more open section of the hall.

"Maybe," she said. "All I know for sure is the first time I came down here to talk to Leon, I wandered around for like forty-five minutes before he came to find me and show me how to get to the study."

One more cluster of stairs and they turned down a single long hallway with an open door at the end. The lights overhead were still flickering, casting jumping shadows across the walls, and Kairi glanced over her shoulder as they walked, as if to make sure Riku was still there behind her. He gave her a little smile, and she looked relieved when they reached the lit room at the end. Riku glanced to one side as they moved into the round room, scanning the bookshelves that lined one wall. Kairi let out a sharp gasp then, and he looked at her worriedly, but her eyes were focused on the far wall, her hands near her mouth. Looking up, Riku felt all the blood drain from his face.

There, on the wall, in a gaudy, gilded frame, was a huge portrait of Xehanort.

Not old Xehanort, of course--the portrait was of Xehanort in his late twenties, Riku had to guess; he looked like the Seeker of Darkness, but maybe with slightly lighter skin. He was wearing a white coat, and looked oddly serene. It was actually a little jarring. Kairi backpedaled and reached for Riku's hand, squeezing it tightly.

"Pretty arrogant, huh?" Tifa remarked, her hands on her hips again as she regarded the painting. "Can you imagine? Having an enormous self-portrait put up in your own study... That Xehanort guy seems pretty full of himself."

"You have no idea," Riku said dryly, shaking his head, his eyes narrow and his jaw clenched.

"I wonder whatever happened to him," Tifa said then, moving toward a door on the other side of the study. "Most of the rest of Ansem's colleagues came back, but Xehanort and that... other guy, the wisecracking guard who started wearing an eyepatch one day, I haven't seen them."

Eyepatch? She must have meant Xigbar. Or, well... Xigbar's Somebody. He knew that logically if _Lea_ had come back with his heart, the rest of them had, but he hadn't wanted to ask Lea about the other members of the Organization. He couldn't help a little curiosity, though. In the end, Lea and Axel weren't really so different, he'd found, so he presumed the same would be true of the rest of them. They hadn't caused any trouble that he was aware of, so it had never seemed appropriate to bring them up, but the truth was, Riku didn't really _know_ much about the other Organization members, and Lea hadn't exactly been forthcoming with inside information.

"Maybe it's better not to wonder," Kairi said after a slightly-too-long stretch of silence, and Riku shook his head quickly, snapping out of his contemplation.

Through the study and down another long corridor was a wide rectangular room with a large viewscreen and a big keyboard set into a panel against the wall. A man stood at the keyboard, his dark hair hanging in his eyes and a jacket with a fur ruff around his shoulders. Beside him was a girl about their age, Riku supposed, wearing shorts and a headband, her face twisted with frustration as she bounced in place.

"Squa-aall, let me _do_ it!" she whined, and the dark haired man's shoulders sagged a little.

"Are you _ever_ going to call me Leon?" he asked, and the girl glowered at him as hard as she could.

"Not if you keep being a meanie-face," she said. "Cid showed me how to do it, so let me _do_ it! Why do you always have to supervise _everything_?"

"Getting a lot of work done, I see," Tifa said, putting her hands on her hips as she stood in the doorway, and the girl with the headband gave her a dramatic pout.

"Tifa, tell Squall to let me run the diagnostic program," she said. "I know how to do it, I promise!"

"Yuffie, the last time you tried to run a program, you managed to overheat the CPU," Tifa said, shaking her head, "and that was just a dummy program."

" _Boo_ ," Yuffie grumbled, folding her arms with a harrumph. "You guys never let me do anything."

"Who're your friends, Tifa?" Leon asked, straightening where he stood and ignoring Yuffie entirely at this point.

Tifa stepped aside and turned to Riku and Kairi, starting to introduce them, but was cut off when Kairi let out a delighted noise and rushed forward. Riku watched in utter befuddlement as she proceeded to jump up and down while making very excited noises.

"Yuffie!" she said, and Yuffie's face lit up brightly.

"Kairi!" she gasped, reaching out and grabbing Kairi's arms. "Oh my gosh, look at you! It's been way too long--you got so tall! And your hair got long!"

"And you!" Kairi laughed. "You look... exactly the same, actually."

" _Rude_!" Yuffie squealed. "I grew a whole inch, and you didn't even _notice_!"

"Kairi, it's good to see you again," Leon said, a hint of a smile cracking his features as he swept his long bangs out of his eyes.

"Wait, you guys know each other?" Riku asked, scratching his head, and Kairi turned to look at him.

"Yes, I met Yuffie and Leon a couple of years ago," she said, "when I was with Sora."

"Who's this guy?" Yuffie asked, narrowing one eye at Riku and then squaring her shoulders. "Is he your boyfriend? I thought your boyfriend would be taller. He looks like _Sephiroth_. Hey, are you related to Sephiroth? Do you have one useless vestigial wing, too? It's so weird--what does it even _do_?"

Riku made a face and shook his head, baffled, turning uncomfortably in a slow circle as Yuffie approached and tried to look at his back.

"What? No!" he said sharply. "Who's...? Vestigial wing?" What was she even talking about? Who named their kid _Sephiroth_?

"Yuffie, this is Riku," Kairi said, her face turning a little red suddenly as she reached out and grabbed Yuffie's arm to pull her away from him. "He-he's not my _boyfriend_ , we're just friends."

"So you're the infamous Riku," Leon said. "It's nice to finally meet you."

Riku sort of shrank back a little when the older man offered his hand, reflexively shying away.

"I-infamous?"

"Sora kept asking about you," Leon explained as Riku hesitantly shook his hand. "He said he was looking for you, but he never really elaborated."

Riku gave Leon a slightly abashed look. "Yeah, that sounds like Sora," he said, relaxing just a little. Riku still remembered quite clearly just how emotional Sora had become when they'd finally been reunited; he guessed he wasn't really surprised to learn that Sora had talked about him while they'd been apart. He tilted his head a little at Leon then, curious. "So... is it Leon, or Squall?" he asked, glancing at Yuffie, who just snorted a very unladylike laugh.

"It's Leon--"

"It's Squall--"

Leon and Yuffie spoke at the same time, and then Yuffie laughed, bright and loud, while Leon rolled his eyes and folded his arms.

"His real name is Squall," Yuffie said then, and Leon just glowered at her as she made a comically mopey face. "But after Garden fell, he started calling himself Leon and he was just grumpy all the time."

"Yuffie..."

She ignored Leon's warning tone and draped an arm across her forehead, looking like she was preparing to faint.

"He just couldn't bear the shame of letting his home collapse," she said dramatically, and then pulled her arm away from her face and gave Riku a look that said something along the lines of, _can you believe this guy?_ "So he said he wasn't going to go back to his old name until he'd put things right."

Riku looked at Leon for a moment, a little startled, actually, and feeling a bit of kinship with this man. While Riku hadn't exactly _chosen_ Ansem's name so much as he'd been _given_ Xehanort's face, he could certainly understand that feeling of responsibility and wanting to distance oneself from that part of themselves that had failed.

"I think it's kind of noble," Riku said quietly, a thin smile on his lips, and then he glanced at Yuffie, his expression a bit chiding. "You shouldn't make fun of him for something like that."

Leon actually grinned at the way Yuffie's expression wrinkled with indignation, but she didn't retort. Instead, she just sniffed and folded her arms.

"I still say it's a dumb name," she grumbled to herself.

"So, you guys are Sora's friends?" Tifa asked then, eager to move onto another subject. "Why didn't you say so?"

"You didn't ask?" Riku ventured, feeling a bit inadequate suddenly. Sora knew these people, Kairi had already met these people--he was the odd man out, here. Maybe he should have just waited outside until Kairi had a chance to watch the video. What if it had sensitive information or something that only people from this world should have known?

"Well, you two might be interested to know that Kairi's apparently a native of Garden herself," Tifa said, canting her head a bit, and Yuffie's jaw dropped.

"What, really?" she squealed. " _Kairi_ , why didn't you tell us? We could have been friends like _way_ sooner!"

Kairi tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and lowered her eyes. "I didn't remember," she said softly, and Yuffie's expression sobered instantly.

"Oh," she said. "Y-yeah, I get that. We forgot a lot about this place for a while, too."

"That's actually what we're here for," Riku said after a beat of silence, and Leon gave him a curious look. "Tifa said you guys saw some video footage that brought back your memories of this world--"

"Hey, if you two ain't gonna run the damn program, then I'm going home," came a surly voice from the far side of the room, and five heads turned, Riku's voice dying on his tongue with the interruption. An older man with yellow hair and a pair of goggles on the crown of his head entered the room from the doorway on the opposite end of the room, wiping his hands on a ragged green towel. "Call me down here to mess with the damn main frame and then waste my time with--"

"Cid, look, Kairi's here!" Yuffie said brightly, and the man glanced up, his eyes narrow. He looked from Yuffie to Kairi to Tifa to Riku, and then his gaze settled on Leon as he threw the towel over his shoulder and put his hands on his hips.

"Consarn it, Leon, why didn't ya tell me we had guests?" he complained, and Leon lifted his hands and shook his head. "I would'a made tea!"

"They just _got_ here, don't look at _me_ ," he said. "Why is everything always my fault?"

"Because you always have to be in charge," Yuffie sniffed.

"Cid, do you think you can find that footage the MCP showed us a while back?" Tifa asked, stepping past Yuffie. "It turns out Kairi's from Radiant Garden, too, but she hasn't gotten her memories back yet. I remember how to set it up, but you know the system better than I do."

Kairi gave Cid a hopeful smile and fiddled with the hem of her shirt. "I thought maybe if I watched the same video you guys did, it could bring back _my_ memories, too."

Cid sucked on his teeth a moment and then nodded.

"Sure, sure," he said, rolling one shoulder back, "I can find it. Shouldn't take but a minute." He moved toward the keyboard, waving his hands to shoo Yuffie and Leon out of the way. "So you're really from this world, huh?" he asked as he tapped at the keys, and Kairi folded her hands together behind her back as she watched him.

"So it would seem," she said, and she inhaled as if to continue, then stopped herself, glancing at Riku. She looked like she wanted to say something more, but instead just pressed her lips together for a moment before she glanced back at Cid. "I don't really remember very much," she said by way of explanation, "but I know for sure that the world I grew up on isn't where I was born. I'm hoping that this video might trigger my memories to return like it did for you guys, and then I'll have the answers."

"And your quiet friend over there," Cid said without looking up, "is he from here, too?"

"That's Riku," Yuffie said helpfully. "Remember, Sora's friend Riku?"

"Oh, the one who was missin'?" Cid thumbed his nose and glanced at Riku, then chuckled. "Glad ya finally got found, kid," he said, and Riku made a bit of a face.

"Um, thanks?" he said, feeling really out of place in this group. They seemed nice enough, but Riku wasn't really sure what to _say_ to them. What had Sora told them about him? Did they know he'd been possessed? Were they just being polite?

"The hell happened to you, anyway?" Cid asked, leaning to get a closer look at Riku. "You look like ya met the business end of a bulldozer."

"He had a run-in with the security system," Tifa said a little guiltily.

"The security system?" Leon made a face. "I thought that got shut down months ago."

"Someone must have missed a spot," Tifa said, "because as soon as we got to the last sector before the castle, it started right up."

"It threw Riku into the air like a ragdoll," Kairi said, frowning, and Cid rubbed the crown of his head, looking a little embarrassed.

"Ahh, sorry about that, kiddo," he said, frowning at Riku. "That was prolly my fault. The security system was my design. It was only supposed to take out Heartless, but I guess it was calibrated to be a little too sensitive to people who weren't from this world."

"Sora had a run-in with it, too, didn't he?" Leon said. "I remember Donald was really angry about it."

"What _isn't_ Donald angry about...?" Riku said wryly.

"Say, where is Sora, anyway?" Yuffie asked, looking past Kairi and back toward the doorway, like she expected him to jump out and yell surprise at any moment.

"He's on a special training mission," Riku said, glad to finally have a solid answer for something. "Kairi and I are here on a mission of our own. Ah, actually, maybe you can help us out with that."

"We'll do what we can," Leon said, folding his arms. "What sort of mission is it? There haven't been any Heartless here in a while, now."

"That's good to know," Riku said with a nod. "We're actually here to speak to whoever's in charge of this world."

"That's not Squall," Yuffie said, rolling her eyes, "much to his chagrin."

"I know," Riku said, a knuckle against his chin. "I was told to ask for someone named Aeleus?"

Tifa frowned a little.

"Ah, yeah, that whole group," she said, clicking her tongue a little. "They're a bit antisocial. They moved their workspace up into the main part of the castle not that long ago."

"If you go up to the main gates, you can ask for Aeleus there," Leon said, brushing his hair out of his eyes again. "He'll probably be the one answering the door, for that matter."

"Okay, thanks," Riku said, and then glanced back at Cid when he made a noise of triumph.

"Aha, there it is," he said, waggling his fingers over the keyboard. "Found yer video footage, little miss Kairi. I knew it was still here."

"It's actually kind of a strange video," Tifa said, canting her head. "We're not even sure who took the footage, for that matter. It's all slow pans of town, of the castle, the square, but there's no people. It's like they made sure there was no one around when they were taking the video."

"Yeah, it's really kind of... sterile," Leon admitted; "not like vacation footage or anything, just empty streets and empty buildings. There's not even any sound."

"Maybe someone just wanted a video layout of the town," Kairi postulated, and Yuffie hummed thoughtfully.

"It reminded me of those boring video tours people do when they're trying to sell a house," she said, her nose wrinkled, "but seeing the world the way it was before the Fall, I guess that was all we needed for our memories to get jogged."

"Well, I'm ready," Kairi said, closing her hands into fists and holding them up near her heart. "Hopefully it'll be all _I_ need, too."

"I guess we'll see," Cid said, making one final keystroke and then stepping back away from the viewscreen.

Kairi watched the screen fade to black, and then it slowly grew brighter as an image of the old square appeared. The camera panned slowly across the cobbled streets, and Kairi inhaled softly at the sight of the diamond in the center of the bricks, then silently reached for Riku's hand. He gave it to her, squeezing her fingers gently, wondering anxiously if it was helping.

The video moved toward one of the residential areas, panning slowly past a few houses and then focusing on a patch of flowers in someone's yard. There seemed to be gardens everywhere, actually, and Riku absently supposed this place had been aptly named, back then. The tour continued down the street, focusing on the fountain sconces on the walls and then on a storefront.

"That was the old pub," Cid said, looking over at Leon. "You remember that place?"

Leon just gave him a long-suffering look.

"Cid, I was fifteen when the world fell, what makes you think I spent any time at a pub?"

"Well excuse me for thinkin' maybe you ever knew how to have a good time," Cid grumbled, folding his arms over his chest with a harrumph.

Kairi was just focused on the video, and Riku could see her straining as she watched, trying to listen, though there didn't seem to be any audio at all, as though the entire soundtrack had been erased. The images were eerily silent as they swept slowly through the town, pausing on houses with gardens in the front and lingering on a dramatic view of the castle. The screen went dark again, and then the video returned, this time a scene of a large series of fountains, each one with a pillar of water cascading upward and then running down the walls.

"That's the fountain courtyard, behind the castle," Yuffie said. "The fountains don't work anymore, but the structures are still there."

"It was really beautiful," Kairi said wistfully, giving a soft sigh.

"One day we'll get it up and running again," Leon said with a firm nod. "We've made progress, just not as much as we'd like."

"The world is slowly starting to come back together, though," Yuffie agreed.

"Repairs to the castle are taking especially long," Tifa noted, gesturing at the screen when another pan of the castle's grand facade came into view. "It really took quite a hit when the world fell; there are entire sections of towers that are impassible, and every time it rains it seems like more moss ends up growing in the exposed corridors." She shook her head and put her hands on her hips again. "We think the castle was originally built in sections and then assembled later," she said, "because we're having a really hard time repairing it as it is. We're trying to take some of the towers _down_ , actually, so we can repair them on the ground and then reattach them to the larger structure."

"It's beginning to look like we may have to just tear them down entirely and rebuild," Leon said with a heavy sigh.

"I wish there was something we could do to help," Riku said, frowning. "Unfortunately, our missions take up most of our time, so I don't think we can join your construction crew."

Tifa shook her head. "It's all right," she said. "We'll manage."

The video faded out again, then resumed with a view of the castle gates. There were stairs that led up to the great blue doors, and Kairi gasped, pointing.

"Riku, it's the white iron fence!" she said. "I was right! There it is!"

Riku smiled brightly, squeezing her hand again.

"Maybe you remember more about this place than you think you do," he said.

The video moved to the top of the stairs and panned around the landing in front of the big blue doors, scanning up higher and higher to the tops of the door frame and then back down. Then the images faded and didn't return.

"And that's it," Cid said, moving back to the keyboard and tapping at it gingerly. "No real explanation or context, unfortunately; that's all we've got."

Kairi looked a little distressed.

"Wait, that's it?" she asked, shaking her head. "That can't be it, I... I didn't remember _anything_ new!"

Riku grimaced at the sheer sadness in her voice. He knew she had been counting on this video to send memories of her childhood and family rushing back to her. She had been _counting_ on the images to fill in the gaps that had plagued her for so long. She looked at Riku, then looked at Cid and took a step forward.

"Please, there has to be more," she said woefully.

Cid shook his head and looked at her apologetically.

"'Fraid not, little lady," he said, folding his arms again. "Everything else we've managed to recover has been corrupted or incomplete. We've got a few business licenses, a coupl'a old census records, some patchy blueprints, and not much else. We're basically starting over from scratch."

Kairi slumped a bit where she stood, and Riku squeezed her hand again. She looked at Riku, disappointment bright and stinging in her eyes, and he just met her gaze sympathetically.

"I'm sorry, Kairi," he said, and she just shook her head. He decided right then and there that they _would_ find her grandmother, no matter what, even if they had to knock on every door still standing.

"I really thought that would work," she said with a heavy sigh. "I guess I'm starting from scratch, too."

Yuffie stepped forward and touched Kairi's shoulder, then impulsively took her into a big hug.

"It's all right, Kairi," she said quietly, her voice unusually serious and gentle. "We've all lost things, too. Even if you don't have your memories, you've still got us, okay?" She pulled back and gave her a watery smile. "You're always welcome here."

Leon nodded and reached out to put a hand on her shoulder as well.

"Yuffie's right," he said. "With or without your memories, if this is your home world, then you're one of us, and you can visit any time."

"Who knows?" Tifa said. "The memories may yet come back. Memory can be funny that way--it just comes and goes as it pleases, and you can't predict what might happen."

Kairi smiled and sniffled, refusing to get emotional, and gave them a nod.

"Thanks, you guys," she said. "I'll remember that, for sure."

She looked at Riku again, then pressed her lips together.

"Maybe we should head back," she said. "I feel bad we left Lea on his own all this time."

Riku smiled a bit.

"Yeah, who knows what sort of trouble he might have gotten into?" he said.

"Ahh, hold on, hold on, before you two jet off, I actually have somethin' for ya," Cid said, and Kairi blinked as he turned and reached for a box beside one of the computer panels.

"Something for us?" she asked.

Cid rummaged through the box for a moment, then held up a small, rectangular device.

"I had planned to give it to Sora the next time he happened by," he said, "but if you two are doing a lot of inter-world travel, too, then that's even better. I was hoping to give it some real good distance testing before pitching the idea officially." He held the device out with one hand and went back to rummaging in the box with the other.

"What is it?" Kairi asked, reaching over and taking it from his hand. She turned it over in her grip, and Riku leaned over her shoulder to try and get a better look. It was about the size of an index card, made of hard plastic, with a screen of some sort, and a little keyboard that slid out when it was held horizontally. The screen lit up when Kairi pulled the keyboard out, and she inhaled sharply. "Riku, look, it lights up!"

Riku squinted at the screen, his brow furrowed. He could vaguely make out that there was an image of some sort on the screen, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was.

"That's... great," he said, puzzled, "but what does a flashlight need with a keyboard?"

"It ain't a _flashlight_ , ya idjit," Cid said, turning and thrusting another one of the devices at Riku, who took it robotically and frowned at it in his hand. "It's a communication device!" He reached into his pocket and pulled out another, sliding the keyboard out and typing with his thumbs. "You can send messages between 'em from anywhere on this world," he said, "but I haven't been able to test 'em from other worlds yet, so I was hoping you'd do that for me. I call it a CidPhone."

Kairi blinked. "A CidPhone?" she echoed, and Riku pursed his lips.

"That's... original," he said, more to himself than to Cid.

"It's a _working_ title," the older man groused. "Anyway, if you two'll take 'em with ya when you go offworld, and see if you can still send and receive messages, that'd be a big help to me. They're made with the same tech as the Gummi Ships, so they _should_ work from anywhere, they just haven't been field tested yet." He reached over and pressed one of the buttons on the keyboard on Kairi's device, and a new menu came up. "Everybody's devices are programmed in here already," he said. "See, ya got Aerith, me, Cloud--don't message him, though, that sonovagun never returns my messages--ah... Leon, Tifa, and Yuffie, and then there's a few more than haven't been assigned yet." He pointed at Riku. "Flip yers over, there's a number on the back," he said, and Riku balked.

Kairi just reached over and took the phone from his hand, turning it over and matching the number on the back up with the number in the list. Once she'd edited the number to read Riku's name and then edited her own into Riku's phone, she peered at the rest of the unassigned numbers.

"You still have a few more of these, right?" she asked, and Cid nodded.

"Yeah, I made like a dozen," he said.

"Could we have two more?" she asked, holding up two fingers. "We have another friend who comes with us on missions, and I'm sure he'd be willing to help, too. And I'd like to give one to Sora!" She smiled brightly. "If they really do work from any world, it'd mean we could keep in touch while he's away."

Cid rubbed his chin, then smiled and nodded.

"Sure thing," he said, reaching for the box and digging out two more of the phones. He handed them to Kairi and wagged a finger at her. "And as thanks for helping test 'em out, you guys can keep 'em, they're on the house."

"Thanks!" Kairi said. "They're really neat, we'll definitely send you guys messages."

"You'd better!" Yuffie said, putting her hands on her hips and giving Kairi a mock-stern look. "I better get frequent updates on what you're up to, missy. It's no fun just messaging these guys all the time."

"Oh, and if it runs outta juice," Cid said then, "just give it a good zap."

"Zap?" Riku echoed, one eyebrow arched.

"Yeah, one good Thunder spell'll do the trick," Cid said. "Should keep 'em going for at least a day or two."

Riku rolled one shoulder back and frowned a little, but gave a nod.

"Right," he said, and slid the phone into his pocket. He glanced at Kairi, then turned toward Leon and the others. "Thanks for your help, we really appreciate it."

Leon reached out to shake Riku's hand again, and Riku didn't hesitate this time.

"It's no problem," he said. "That invitation goes for you, as well, by the way. Any friend of Sora and Kairi's is a friend of ours; you're welcome to drop in any time."

Kairi laughed softly when Riku's face flushed a little with embarrassment and he muttered something about Sora having too many friends and how did he even keep track of them all? Even with the gaps in her memory regarding her past, Riku hoped that Kairi could still appreciate her present. She had a lot of people who cared about her, across several worlds; in the end, did it really matter _so_ much if she still had questions about where she'd come from?

They would look for her grandmother, and if they were lucky they would find her, but Riku just wanted Kairi to know that no matter where she was born, she was still one of the most important people in the whole universe, to him.

Kairi reached for his hand again and gave his arm a tug.

"Ready to go?" she asked, and Riku nodded with a small smile.

"Yeah, let's go."

He had to admit he was a little eager to find Lea, knowing that this world likely held a lot of unpleasant memories for him. Even if they couldn't find Kairi's memories of this world, even if they couldn't put those pieces of the puzzle back where they belonged, Riku didn't want to leave Lea to face that painful history alone any longer, and he had a feeling Kairi didn't, either. Maybe they would never find the missing pieces of her past, and maybe Lea would never reconcile with his own, but Riku planned to continue building this future with these people, no matter where it led.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always, thank you for reading! your comments make me happy, so please don't ever hesitate to tell me your thoughts! the usual thanks and groveling to Saree for being the best beta ever. ♥


	28. Green and Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Riku makes a startling discovery.

  
It was well after noon by the time Riku and Kairi made it back to the spot where they'd left Lea, and Riku was actually _starving_. All he'd eaten that morning for breakfast was a cup of yogurt, and it was catching up with him now. Well, he could deal with it; he'd certainly been through worse. He just hoped his stupid stomach didn't growl or something embarrassing like that.

"There he is," Kairi said as they turned the corner, chuckling softly as she pointed to where Lea was laying on his back under a tree, his heels propped up on the trunk and his hands threaded together behind his head.

"Napping," Riku snorted, shaking his head. "Why am I not surprised?"

Kairi swatted his arm. "Oh, give him a break," she said, rolling her eyes. "If he stayed here the whole time, what did you expect him to do? Play solitaire?"

"He probably cheats."

"I'll have you know I do _not_ cheat at solitaire," Lea piped up, raising one arm with his index finger lifted very importantly, and Riku was a bit startled.

"You _heard_ me?" They were still ten yards away!

Lea dropped his arm and rolled onto his stomach, resting his chin in one upturned palm.

"I have excellent hearing," he said with a grin, and Riku looked unimpressed.

"Then how come you never listen to me during lessons?" he asked, and Lea didn't bat an eye.

"Excellent _selective_ hearing," he amended.

Riku palmed his face. Nothing less from Lea, he supposed.

"So, how did you guys do?" Lea asked then, and Riku frowned a bit, folding his arms, before he glanced at Kairi. This was her news to share, not his.

She met his eye, then shook her head before looking back at Lea.

"No luck," she said, walking over toward him and sitting down in the grass not far from where he still had his jaw propped against his fist. "We met some people from the Restoration Committee, and they told us they'd lost their memories, too," she said, and Lea's eyebrows rose with interest.

"Oh?" he asked, and Riku shuffled over to sit down in the grass across from Kairi, on Lea's other side.

"Yeah, they said that when the world fell, they were sent away to another world," he said, letting his elbows rest on his knees, "and they forgot all about this place."

"It wasn't until they found this video file in the computer system, just footage of the town, before it was swallowed by Darkness, that they remembered anything," Kairi said, and then furrowed her brow at Lea. "Did you forget?" she asked, and he shook his head.

"No," he said simply. "I mean, I was pretty disoriented, after I..." He trailed off and his eyes skirted away. Riku frowned a bit, realizing that Lea was talking about when he'd first woken up as Axel, as a Nobody; no wonder he'd balked.

He seemed to recover quickly, though.

"It was kind of like hearing a song you forgot you knew all the words to," he said after a moment. "At first, I wasn't really sure of anything, but after a day or two, I remembered everything: who I had been, where I had come from... what had happened to me." He tilted his head, looking curiously at Kairi. "I wonder why you all forgot."

"Yen Sid told me that travel between worlds without proper safety equipment--a gummi ship or a coat or something--can be really dangerous," Riku posited, a knuckle against his chin. "Maybe the fact that you were all sent somewhere else messed up your memories."

"Maybe." Kairi sighed heavily. "I watched the video, too, but... it didn't bring back any memories for me," she said, looking disappointed. A shake of her head and she doubled forward to plunk her chin down in her palm, her elbow on her knee. "Nobody seemed to know about my grandma, either."

Lea was smiling again, and Riku found himself narrowing his eyes at him.

"What're you so happy about?" he asked, a little indignant. Kairi had just told him that she'd failed to find _anything_ , and he still had a dumb grin on his face. "That's _bad_ news."

"It is," Lea said, lifting his feet at the knees and kicking them back and forth over his bottom like a schoolgirl on the phone, "and I'm genuinely sorry your efforts were unsuccessful."

Kairi arched one dramatic eyebrow. "Right, the face of sincerity, right here," she said, rolling her eyes as she gave Riku a long-suffering look, tilting her head toward Lea. She glanced at him then, looking slightly unimpressed. "Please don't tell me you just laid around here for like two hours."

"Heck no," he said, grinning wide again. "I'll have you know I was quite busy."

"On a cellular level, maybe," Riku remarked dryly.

Lea snorted, then rolled over onto his back again. "Fine, if that's how you're gonna be," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a little folded piece of paper, "then I won't share this after all." He held the paper up between two fingers, and Kairi reached over to snatch it out of his hand before he could hold it away. "H- _hey_! No fair!" he yawped, propping himself up on his elbows.

"You didn't establish the rules of the engagement," Kairi said matter-of-factly, and unfolded the paper. She squinted at it, then gave Lea a puzzled look. "What is this?" she asked. "This isn't your handwriting, is it? No way your handwriting is this neat."

"I have _great_ penmanship, you shush your face," Lea snapped with mock severity, and then laid back into the grass again, crossing one leg over the other at the knee. "Maybe you should have waited until I told you about it~"

"Lea, so help me, if you're bragging about having gotten someone's number..." Riku said in a warning tone, and Lea snorted a laugh.

"Well isn't _our_ mind in the gutter...?"

Kairi looked at Riku, who sort of spluttered at the remark, and then made a beckoning gesture with one hand. She leaned forward to hand him the folded piece of paper, and he furrowed his brow at the writing.

"This is an address," he said, looking back up at Kairi and then looking at Lea. So far as he could tell, Radiant Garden was arranged like a wagon wheel, with the castle in the center and then the city divided into several sections, walls partitioning each one like spokes. "It's a house number and a block number, and then the district, right?"

"Give the man a gold star," Lea said, holding his arm up, again with one finger lifted. "Got it on the first try!"

"So you got someone's _address_." Riku looked at Lea with measured tolerance.

"Well not for the debauched purposes your hormonal teenage mind is undoubtedly supplying you with."

"So it's an address," Kairi said, making a bit of a face as Riku made a wordless noise of indignation, "so what's _at_ this address?"

"I don't know, actually," Lea said without missing a beat.

"Well _that's_ helpful," Riku said with a snort.

"See, this is why you should have let me explain instead of just being all grabby," Lea scolded, rolling back over onto his stomach. "For your _information_ ," he said then, looking very self-important, "it just so _happens_ I bumped into someone who just so _happened_ to know of an individual who just so _happens_ to fit the description of a person we just so _happen_ to be looking for."

It took Riku a moment to filter through all of the potentials in that sentence, but when he realized what Lea had just said, he looked surprised.

"Wait, you mean you--"

"--found my grandma?" Kairi gasped, interrupting him. She tilted forward sharply, spilling onto her hands and leaning over Lea's face where he was still laying on his back. "I thought you didn't want to talk to anybody, because you were worried about being recognized or something, did you seriously go looking for my grandma all on your own?"

"A-actually, it was kind of an acci--"

Before he could finish his rebuttal, Kairi dropped her head and kissed him on the cheek, and he fell utterly silent. Riku did as well, staring at her with wide eyes, and he swallowed thickly as something seemed to lodge in the back of his throat. He could hear his pulse pounding in his ears, and he looked away suddenly, feeling a blush creep across his face. Something somewhere in the depths of his brain suddenly really wanted to scream _jealous!_ , but the trouble was... he wasn't sure if he was jealous of Lea... or of _Kairi_.

What did _that_ mean?

Staring at the grass, Riku frowned a little, finding his breath had quickened. He had known for years that he had feelings for Kairi. He had basically fallen head over heels for her within a week of her arrival on the islands, and though it seemed that Sora had been equally as infatuated at first, his appreciation for Kairi had always seemed far more innocent. Riku still remembered very clearly just how befuddled Sora had been when the idea of sharing a paopu with Kairi had been raised. He remembered thinking, _'what a dope!'_ , and suddenly there was a pang of guilt alongside the preludes of envy. Sora had always been his best friend... _would_ always be his best friend... but _Light_ , Riku was still so embarrassed and ashamed of what an ass he'd been to him back then. When the islands had fallen, he had only been thinking of him _self_ , and when he had been reunited with Kairi, silent and soulless as a doll, he had thought only of _her_ ; his thoughts of Sora were filled with spite and betrayal and a fierce need to be _better_ than him. _He_ would save Kairi, before Sora ever had a chance to, and then--maybe?--she would love him.

Right?

So he wasn't at all surprised that he felt a twinge of jealousy that Lea had gotten a kiss on the cheek. What surprised him was that there was apparently more to it than that. A little voice in the back of his mind was complaining that it just wasn't _fair_ \--how did _Kairi_ have the courage to kiss Lea on the cheek? And so casually? So impulsively?

He furrowed his brow. Why should that have seemed unfair in the first place? It wasn't like he _wanted_ to kiss Lea on the cheek.

Wait, did he?

This was dumb and made no sense. He must have hit his head when he'd been thrown to the ground earlier, because there was absolutely no logical reason for these sorts of thoughts to even be crossing his mind. First and foremost, Lea was a _boy_. Er, well, a _man_. He couldn't like another _man_ , that just wasn't normal. His parents would never forgive him if he didn't settle down and marry a nice girl one day--that was how it was _supposed_ to be! What would they say--what would they _think_ if they found out he thought he liked another _man_? And a much _older_ man, at that? A much older man from a completely different world that he had met while lying to them about the fact that he'd been secretly training to save the universe from Darkness for the past two years?

They would have him _committed_ , if they didn't just plain disown him.

No, this couldn't be happening. It couldn't be real. He was just imagining it. Emotions were unpredictable and unreasonable; this was all just in his head.

He realized suddenly that it had gotten very quiet, and he snapped out of his intense contemplation to see Lea had sat up and he and Kairi were both staring at him now, puzzled, concerned looks on their faces.

"W-what?" he asked, a little too sharply, feeling his ears burn hot.

"You looked like you were stuck on the meaning of the universe, man," Lea said, tilting his head a little, and Riku noted absently that Lea's eyes were a very unusual color: not quite green, but not really blue, either. They looked like they glowed in the dark.

_What are you even thinking about!?_

"Everything okay?" Lea prompted, and Riku shook his head quickly, sitting up straighter.

"Yes!" he blurted, too loudly, and he pressed his lips together, the rest of his face heating up to match his ears. Light, why did his entire body have to betray him when he was embarrassed? "I-I'm fine, I just got distracted for a minute," he hedged, and then cleared his throat. "What'd I miss?"

Kairi didn't look convinced, but shifted to get her knees under her anyway.

"We're gonna go to the address Lea got," she said, pushing herself to her feet and dusting the grass off her knees. "It might _not_ be the right lady, but I think we've got to try."

Riku nodded firmly. "Yeah, absolutely," he said, taking a deep breath to try and calm his nerves and then moving to rise to his feet as well. "Good work, Lea."

"Like I said, it was totally by accident," Lea assured him, getting up and brushing himself off, then rolling one shoulder back, obviously trying to look aloof. "I just bumped into someone."

"And asked about my grandma," Kairi said, and Lea harrumphed.

"It's not like she gave me a choice," he grumbled, folding his arms. "She tricked me."

Riku actually laughed. "I didn't know you had mind-readers here," he said, and Lea glowered at him.

"Okay, wise-ass," he said, waving a hand at him. "You've got the paper, so you lead the way. I've _done_ my good deed for the year."

"Only one a year?" Kairi asked cheekily, folding her hands together behind her back as she moved toward the cobblestone road. "I'd say you already did it before, I mean... You saved Sora twice, you tried to protect me from the Romani in the catacombs, you covered for Riku when he got sick--you've even been tutoring me in magic!" She grinned brightly and turned to look at him, leaning forward and looking sly. "Are those all extra credit?"

Lea threw his hands in the air and made a growling sound.

"Shut up, both of you, all of you, everybody shut up." 

Lea marched out to the cobblestone and then turned to point at both of them, and Riku found himself hiding laughter behind one hand. Well, he was just so melodramatic!

"I _had_ planned to just take a nap under that tree," he said with exaggerated flourish, "but I decided to be a little more productive and I went to see how some of the old landmarks had fared. I ran into this girl who basically knew everybody in town back before the Fall, and she tricked me into telling her what was on my mind, that's _it_."

"Face it, Lea," Riku snickered, "you're _nice_."

"No I am _not_!" Lea insisted, folding his arms and sticking his nose in the air. "I'm a stubborn bossy cynical jerk and I'm only here so you two lunkheads don't go and do something stupid."

"Uh-huh," Kairi said, giving Riku a crooked smile. "Sure."

"Ugh, just _go_ ," Lea huffed, waving both hands to shoo them down the street. "Let's go find your grandma and then _she_ can look after you, _sheesh_. I've got very important napping to do."

Riku laughed helplessly at Lea's insistence, then shook his head and turned to glance down the street.

Then he paused and glanced behind him. And then he looked to his right.

"Uhm..."

"What is it?" Kairi asked, stepping up alongside him, and Riku rubbed the back of his neck.

"Actually, I have no idea how to get here," he said, tapping the paper with the address on it with the back of his hand. He glanced at Lea imploringly, and the redhead just fixed him with a look that was far too comically annoyed to actually be annoyed.

"Good grief, I really _do_ have to do everything around here." Lea shook his head and stomped past them, headed down the street to their left, and Kairi giggled into her hands.

Riku looked at Kairi, feeling his heart swell with the sound of her laughter, and then he turned to watch Lea's back as he stalked stiffly down the street ahead of them, ranting indecipherably the whole time. Something about his vehemence that he absolutely was _not_ the nice guy both Riku and Kairi had come to know he _was_ , it evoked that same sort of feeling in him. He didn't really know what it meant, or how it had happened, but he guessed there would be time to think about that later. For now, they had an address to find.

Feeling a little bold, Riku offered Kairi his elbow, which she promptly took, and they headed down the cobblestone road after Lea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am SO sorry this took like 84 years. life is at least moderately back on track now, though, so i should be able to update more regularly from here on. thanks for your patience, and i hope you guys enjoy the chapters to come!


	29. Tea and Cookies and Origin Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kairi learns about her own backstory.

It hadn't taken long to get to the address Aerith had given him, and Lea was actually a little impressed with how... abysmal Riku's sense of direction was.

"Seriously?" he asked. "You can navigate by the stars but you can't find an address in a town shaped like a spoked wheel. How in the hell did you ever manage to stay two steps ahead of the Organization for all that time when you can't even tell north from west?"

"Unlike some weird freaks of nature, I don't have a compass built into my _head_ ," Riku huffed, pursing his lips. "Is your photographic memory a GPS, too?"

"Apparently," Lea said, rolling his eyes. "Okay, it's this street." He glanced back at Kairi, who had been placed in charge of holding the slip of paper. "Which house number was it?"

"Number six," she said, looking apprehensive, and Lea smiled lightly. He sort of understood how she felt. He hadn't seen his family in over a decade. He had gone by the house once, the first night he had come back here, just to see if it was still standing, and he had found the lights on. That was good enough for him, to know that they were alive. He would go home one day, when he had set right everything he had messed up. When he had saved Isa from Xehanort's clutches. When he could finally look his family in the eye and say he had been a part of the solution instead of only a part of the problem.

Shaking his head to break the spell of musing, he made a beckoning gesture with one hand, and when Kairi minced closer he draped an arm around her shoulder.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want to," he said quietly, looking at her sidelong.

Kairi nibbled on her lower lip, her brow furrowed, but she shook her head.

"No, I do want to," she insisted, meeting his eye with a nervous smile. "I'm just not sure what to say. What if it isn't even her?" She covered her mouth with one hand. "What if it _is_?" Her eyes were apprehensive even as they were eager. "How can I tell her I forgot all about her?"

"It isn't like you forgot on purpose," Riku pointed out, frowning a little. "Even the Restoration Committee forgot this world's name for a while, forgot about how it used to be. I don't think anyone blames them for that."

"I guess so," she said noncommittally, lowering her eyes and shuffling her feet, and she inhaled sharply then, looking up at Lea with alarm. "What if--?" She covered her mouth again. "What if she's forgotten about _me_?" she gasped, shaking her head, and Lea just huffed a soft laugh.

"You worry way too much, princess," he said, patting her shoulder. "You'll never know if you chicken out now, got it memorized?"

Kairi took a deep breath, held it a moment, then blew it out up toward her hairline, seeming to deflate before she squared her shoulders.

"You're right," she said.

"Of course I am." Lea pointedly ignored the stares this got him.

"It's gonna be what it's gonna be," Kairi said, and straightened her spine.

Riku stepped up beside Lea as Kairi marched up the walkway toward the door to the little house, and he cast a glance up at him.

"Think she'll be okay?" he asked softly, and Lea looked at him with an uncertain shrug of one shoulder.

"Family's complicated," he said, shaking his head. "And it's personal, which makes it all the more complicated." He folded his arms. "All we can do is support her."

Riku's gaze sank toward his shoes, and he mumbled a noncommittal affirmative, and Lea shot him a puzzled look, but the younger man said nothing more.

Kairi hesitated on the doorstep and then turned back to shoot a glower at the both of them.

"Are you two _coming_?" she all but hissed, her hands fisted, and both the boys jumped, startled by her vehemence, before they obediently hustled up the walkway to join her.

"I didn't think you'd want us to go with you," Riku sort of spluttered, looking abashed. "Isn't it kind of a private thing, to reunite with your family after so long?"

Kairi's hand shot out and snapped up one of Riku's, and she squeezed it pointedly. "You've been my family for the whole interim," she said firmly. "I could never do this without you. I wish Sora were here to be with me, too..." She glanced at Lea then, who shifted a little awkwardly.

He knew she couldn't say such things about him. He had kidnapped her, had put her through a horrible experience, all for his own selfish reasons... and maybe she believed he'd made up for that, even if he didn't think he ever really would, but there was no way she would call him family after such a short time together. He lifted his hands and gave a sheepish grin.

"You can tell me to beat it," he said, shaking his head. "I know I'm the odd man out, here--"

He made a sharp noise in the back of his throat as Kairi took his hand as well. He was still impressed by how strong her grip was.

"You're the reason for any of this," she said sternly. "If you hadn't told me this is where I was born, how would I have ever found out? You even found the address, after you said you didn't want to be a part of this!"

Lea felt his ears heat up with something like embarrassment, and he pulled at the back of his neck with his free hand. How was it that Kairi always managed to catch him off guard like this? Even when he was _expecting_ her to say something nice, her words still hit him like a sudden hug out of nowhere, and as pleasant as it was to have his good qualities pointed out, he still wasn't used to it at all. He wasn't sure he ever would be.

"I want you _both_ here," Kairi said then, squeezing their hands again before releasing them. "Whether this is my grandma's house or not, I want the both of you beside me when that door opens."

Lea swallowed hard, then glanced at Riku, who looked about as unsure about this as he was, but he just found himself giving a smile and a sigh as he looked back to Kairi and nodded.

"As you wish," he said with a chuckle. This was still so _strange_. Certainly he had a lot more confidence in the whole friendship arena nowadays, but getting to know Riku and Kairi was just so _different_ from any other friendship he'd ever had. Making friends with Isa when they were kids had been easy--friendship was just easy when you were young, it happened at the drop of a hat; you just fell into it like tripping over your own feet. Getting close with Roxas had been weird, considering he hadn't had a heart at the time, but they had made it work, somehow, even if it had gotten a little complicated when Xi--

... Huh?

Lea squeezed his eyes closed a moment. There it was again, that strange feeling of déjà vu, that weird idea that he'd forgotten something really important, and couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was. It was maddening--he was so adamant about remembering things, especially _important_ things, and yet he was absolutely certain that something was just _missing_ , somehow.

Okay, this wasn't the time, though. He could overanalyze his feelings later. Right now, Kairi needed support, and he had every intention of providing it. He gave her a nod, and she nodded back before stepping forward and lifting one hand. After a moment's hesitation, she rapped her knuckles quickly on the door, then stepped back, nearly colliding with Riku in her haste. There was a long, tense moment of silence, in which Lea was fairly certain Kairi was going to hyperventilate, and he impulsively reached out and put a hand on top of her head.

"Breathe," was all he said, and she took a deep breath, holding it a moment before letting it out. Of course, her attempts to regulate her breathing went out the window when there was the sound of the lock being turned and the door opened to reveal an elderly woman in a simple dress and apron. She was quite small, barely as tall as Kairi herself, with thick grey hair pulled up in a bun, and she had a lacey dish towel in her hands. She looked a bit confused by the trio on her doorstep, and tilted her head.

"Can I help you?" she asked gently, and Kairi took a deep breath.

"Um, hello, ma'am, s-sorry to disturb you," she said hurriedly, "but, um... well, you see, I was born on this world, but a lot of things happened, and somehow I wound up somewhere else when I was five, and--"

"Kairi?"

Kairi's mile-a-minute rambling got cut off abruptly as the woman in the doorway dropped her dish towel and seemed to go a shade paler. Her eyes had gone wide, and she was staring at the girl before her in tenuous wonder.

"Kairi, is that really you?"

Kairi, meanwhile, seemed frozen on the spot, and after a moment, Lea gently poked her between the shoulders with one finger, hoping to break the trance.

"I'm--! Er... yes? Yes, it's... my name is Kairi," Kairi stumbled, shaking her head quickly, "but if... if you're my grandma, I don't... remember." She bowed deeply at the waist then. "I'm so sorry!" she said. "I had no memories of this place or anyone here and my friend grew up here and he told me this is where I come from but I don't remember it at all and he said he thought I had a grandma but--"

The old woman reached out and took Kairi's shoulders, urging her to stand up straight, and there were tears in her eyes as she then gathered the frantically apologetic girl into her arms. Kairi went stiff as a board for a moment, then glanced over her shoulder at Riku, as though he would have some insight. Riku just smiled and made a 'go ahead' gesture with one hand, and apparently that was good enough for her, because she threw her arms around the old woman's shoulders and hugged her tightly.

"I thought you'd vanished for good," the woman said, her voice tight. "Most of us came back... some people don't even know that any time passed, but some..." She shook her head. "Some people just never returned," she said, closing her eyes.

"I'm so sorry I forgot about you," she said, squeezing the old woman tightly. "All I remember is waking up in a world I didn't recognize... but I couldn't even remember the world I _did_ recognize."

The old woman shook her head. "That doesn't matter anymore," she said, and then pulled back almost reluctantly. "Won't you come inside? I want to know what you've been doing all this time, where you've been, what you've seen." She glanced up then, as if seeing the boys for the first time, and smiled. "And who your friends are."

Kairi gave a start.

"Oh! Right! Of course!" she said, turning and gesturing. "G... Grandma... this is Riku, and Lea," she said, a bit haltingly. Riku bowed politely, and Lea hesitated, then nodded his head in something like a greeting. "I grew up with Riku and our other friend Sora, who's not here right now; they looked out for me pretty much my whole life."

"She was usually the one keeping _us_ out of trouble, actually," Riku said with a grin, his face a bit pink with embarrassment, and Kairi's grandmother laughed softly.

"Is that so?" she asked. "I'm a bit surprised. Kairi was always quite the troublemaker, herself."

Kairi looked a bit sheepish, but obviously couldn't disagree.

"And Lea grew up here, in Radiant Garden," she said then. "He's the one who told me this is where I come from. I never would have known to look for you without his help."

Lea rubbed the back of his neck. "I didn't really do much," he insisted, feeling kind of awkward. He loved being the center of attention, it was true, but somehow in this situation it felt like it wasn't his place to accept praise.

The elderly woman smiled at Lea, then stepped aside and made a beckoning gesture.

"Why don't you all come in?" she said. "I'll make some tea, and I actually just baked some cookies."

Lea chuckled. Apparently grandmas really _did_ just bake cookies all the time, just in case of company.

"I never turn down free cookies," he admitted, and after a moment's hesitation, all three of them stepped into the house.

The home was small, cozy, like most of the houses in Radiant Garden had always been. It wasn't an especially large world in the first place, as far as Lea knew, and the landmass the castle town was on was barely two miles in diameter, including the area outside the main walls. The majority of the houses were tall and narrow townhomes or small, two- or three-room single-story buildings all nestled very close to one another. The furnishings were modest, the sofa a bit threadbare and the coffee table worn on the corners, but it reminded Lea of his own grandmother's home, a bit. Kairi stood in the center of the room for a long moment, just peering at all of the objects in it like she could wring memories from them.

"Please, have a seat," the old woman said, gesturing to the sofa. "I haven't got much--don't really get too many visitors--but I hope you'll be comfortable."

"Thank you, ma'am," Riku said, gingerly taking a seat on the couch as though he feared it might collapse beneath him.

"Oh, heavens, you don't have to call me ma'am," she laughed, waving a knobby hand. "Call me Lynn. 'Ma'am' just makes me feel like an old lady."

Lea laughed brightly at that, and Kairi looked a little uncertain.

"Should I not call you Grandma, then?" she asked, sounding genuinely concerned about this, and Lynn smiled.

"'Grandma' is an exception," she said.

"Can I help you with the tea?" she asked gently. Lynn nodded and made a beckoning gesture.

"Of course, my dear," she said. "Come, the kitchen is over here."

They disappeared through a swinging door, and Lea let out a whuff of a sigh, taking a seat beside Riku on the couch.

"Well," he said, leaning back and threading his hands behind his head, "this mission's been a wild ride so far."

"Yeah..." Riku replied noncommittally, staring at his hands in his lap, and Lea lifted his eyebrows.

Uh-oh. That was Riku's 'stewing' posture. Whenever he was brooding about something, or had a tangled knot of a problem he just couldn't straighten out, Riku tended to just sit, hunch, and stare at his hands, as though they held all the answers that so spitefully evaded him. Riku hadn't been too terribly broody since the missions started going more easily, since the three of them had started working more smoothly as a team, so this sudden pensiveness struck Lea as somewhat out of the blue.

He made a soft humming noise and dug into his pocket, fumbled for a moment, then pulled out a munny orb and offered it silently to Riku, who noticed it, glanced away, then looked back at it and sort of glowered when he realized what it meant. He fixed Lea with a long-suffering look and pushed the munny ball away.

"Stop reverse-panhandling for my thoughts," he grumbled, and Lea snorted a laugh, tossing the munny ball up into the air and then catching it again.

"Riku, we talked about this," he said in a warning tone. "Didn't you promise to stop being so secretive?"

"No," Riku said immediately, pursing his lips a bit, "I promised to _try_ and stop being so hard on myself. This isn't me being hard on myself."

Lea arched one eyebrow. "Well, gee, it's hard to tell when you're sulking because you hate yourself from when you're sulking because something _else_ is on your mind."

"I'm not sulking," came the insistent reply. "I'm _thinking_." This was punctuated by Riku pointedly leaning over the arm of the couch to poke at the tiny ceramic cat figures on the end table.

"Po-tay-to, po-tah-to," Lea said, draping his arms across the back of the couch and propping one ankle on his opposite knee. "So are you gonna take my five munny and hurl it into the woods later or are you gonna tell me what's on your mind free of charge?" He grinned. "Or are you just gonna keep playing with grandma's kitty cat figurines?"

Riku sighed and slumped back against the couch.

"I guess there's no way you'll just let this go, huh?"

"Not a chance."

Giving another sigh and rubbing his forehead, Riku was quiet for a long moment, then glanced at Lea briefly before he looked away again.

"I just wonder what this means for us," he said, and Lea made a wordless noise of inquiry. "I mean, for the three of us. Of course I'm glad Kairi's found her grandmother, glad she's finally found out where she comes from..."

"But?" Lea prompted, and Riku cast him a distressed frown.

"But does this mean she's going to stay here in Radiant Garden from now on?"

Riku looked so worried, so positively _disconsolate_ at this idea, that Lea did the only thing he could in that moment: he burst out laughing. This, of course, quickly shoved Riku's troubled expression into something much more indignant, and he folded his arms over his chest with a pointed harrumph.

"Oh, forget it," he huffed, sounding genuinely peeved. "I dunno why I tell you anything."

Shaking his head and trying to quell his amusement, Lea reached over and fumbled blindly for a moment until he found Riku's shoulder to pat it consolingly. Riku quickly wrenched away and continued to glare at him.

"Riku, for Light's sake," Lea managed to say between laughs. "You think one meeting with grandma is gonna undo like ten years of growing up on your islands?" Riku looked uncertain of the right answer, and Lea rolled his eyes. He knew Riku had a bit of an abandonment complex--anyone who had hung around him for more than ten minutes could probably see it--but he'd had no idea it ran this close to the surface. "First of all, blood family doesn't necessarily trump the family you make for yourself," he said, wagging a finger. "The mayor of your islands took her in and raised her for ten years, Riku--you and Sora have been by her side through the most important times of her life, and that's not nothing, okay? Yeah, now she knows where she comes from, and she's been reunited with someone from her past, but that doesn't unmake her present, not by a long shot."

"But what if she _wants_ to stay?" Riku pressed, still looking concerned despite Lea's efforts at logic. His expression seemed pulled in two directions, like he felt guilty on top of all of this. Lea guessed that, knowing Riku, he probably _did_.

"Riku, you're acting like she packed a bag and plans to crash on grandma's couch," he said, shaking his head, his voice a bit gentler this time. "Come on, give her a little credit, yah? Kairi wouldn't just up and drop you like a bad habit just 'cuz she found this place. _Aa--_!" He snapped a hand out and pressed his fingertips over Riku's mouth before he could protest again. "Besides, this house barely has room for Lynn," he said. "You really think a young woman is gonna cram herself into a one bedroom home with her _grandma_ when she's got a giant swanky bedroom all to herself at the mayor's house back on Destiny Islands?"

It seemed Lea had finally hit a point of logic Riku couldn't refute. The distress faded a bit from his face, and he brought a knuckle to his chin, pondering this for a moment.

"Anyway, I mean... come on, be reasonable," he said, folding his arms across his chest again. "If you found our your family back home was actually just a foster family and your _real_ family was from some other world, would _you_ just drop everything and go live with them instead?"

"Yes," came Riku's instantaneous reply, and Lea looked utterly shocked for a moment.

Yes? Just... _yes_? He knew Riku and his mother sort of butted heads over caretaking procedures, sure, but Riku was as loyal as they came; it was jarring to hear him say that he'd just leave his family on the islands behind like that. He squinted at him, as though trying to discern a hidden meaning somewhere, but found nothing.

Okay, regroup.

"Riku, no matter what Kairi wanted to do or where she lived, it wouldn't change anything, anyway," he said after a moment of quiet. "You and Kairi and Sora, you're peas in a pod. Sora ain't even here, but that doesn't change that, does it? The three of you were separated for _how_ long over the past couple of years? And here you are, still thick as thieves whenever you're within grabbing distance, like no time has passed at all." He gently flicked Riku's forehead, not hard enough to hurt, just enough to make a point. "So turn off those warning klaxons and take a deep breath, okay?"

Riku did just that, letting the breath out in a wheezy sort of sigh, and Lea just chortled, shaking his head. First Kairi worrying so much that her grandmother wouldn't remember her, then Riku having an aneurysm about Kairi possibly leaving the islands... What would these two do without him? (Of course, he knew if he voiced this, even as a joke, Riku would probably find a way to worry about _him_ leaving, so he refrained.)

Before Riku could find anything else to worry about, Kairi and her grandmother emerged from the kitchen with a tray of cookies and a tea set on a slightly dented silver platter.

"I hope you boys weren't too bored," Lynn said with an apologetic smile. "I'm afraid I haven't got one of those picture boxes the younger kids have."

Realizing she meant a television, Lea laughed and shook his head. "It's fine," he said. "We showed up unannounced, after all; it'd be out of line to demand to be entertained."

"I wish I got more unexpected visits like this one," Lynn admitted, setting the tea tray down on the coffee table and reaching for Kairi's hand. She squeezed it fondly, then gestured for Kairi to sit down on the couch while she sat in the rocking chair adjacent. "Please, help yourselves," she said, gesturing to the tea and cookies. "I had a feeling this morning that I would need these cookies today... I guess I was right."

There were about twelve seconds of slightly awkward silence in which no one moved, and then Lea cleared his throat and leaned forward, plucking a single cookie from the tray and taking a bite. He guessed it was only natural that Kairi would be unsure of what to say in this situation, and Riku, well... if Riku had a superhero identity it would have been Sempiternally Awkward Boy. It looked like it was going to be up to him to keep things from getting too stiff.

"Lynn, these cookies are great!" he said, entirely honest. What was it about cookies made by a grandma? "Family recipe?"

"Actually they came from a tub of dough I got on sale at the market," she said in a stage whisper, and then glanced apologetically at Kairi. "I've never been much of a baker."

A beat passed, and surprisingly Riku was the first one to snerk in laughter. He leaned forward to take a cookie for himself, still trying not to laugh.

From there the conversation continued much more organically. Lynn explained that about half of the denizens of the town seemed aware that the past twelve years had just gone missing somehow, while the other half seemed mostly oblivious, wondering why some people had aged while others hadn't. They obviously understood that something catastrophic had happened to the world, but most of them didn't know what, and didn't seem too eager to learn. Lynn had asked the members of the Restoration Committee for answers when Kairi hadn't been returned with the rest of them, but though they had reluctantly informed her of the true nature of the Fall and the missing years, they hadn't had any answers for her regarding Kairi's whereabouts.

"I always knew that the other worlds existed," she assured them, sipping at her tea and smiling a little as Lea took his fourth cookie. "Even though most people wrote the old legends off as nothing more than fairy tales, I always knew, and when my Kairi didn't return after the world went dark, I spent many nights praying for the Light to keep her safe, whatever world she had been sent to." She cast her deep blue eyes toward Riku then, smiling in gratitude. "It seems my words were heard."

Riku made a noise in the back of his throat, his cheeks reddening in embarrassment, and he hunched his shoulders a bit as he cradled his tea in both hands in front of his mouth.

"I forgot so much," Kairi said wistfully, holding her teacup and twisting it in her hands, "but one thing I always remembered was that story you used to tell me."

"Story?"

Kairi smiled. "The legend about the Light," she said. "How it survived in the hearts of the children of all the worlds... I always remembered that, even when everything else was just a blur of broken images and lost faces."

Lynn smiled broadly. "You used to ask me to tell you that story over and over again," she said, shaking her head. "I suppose if anything was going to stick with you, that would be it."

"I wish you would have mentioned something about that to me," Lea said, rubbing his chin. "I prolly could have told you about Radiant Garden a lot sooner if I'd known you knew that story. Everybody on this world got told that story when they were kids, it's practically our secret password."

Kairi laughed. "Well, if I ever mysteriously lose my memories again, you'll know for next time."

"Don't even joke about that," Riku said, shaking his head with a shudder. "I think we've all lost plenty of memories for one lifetime."

"Grandma, I... I have to ask," Kairi spoke up then, tilting her head a little and looking at Lynn, "what about my parents? Are they somewhere here, too?"

Lynn's eyes seemed to darken, which answered the question wordlessly. Lynn leaned forward and set her tea down on a coaster, then got to her feet and shuffled toward a bookshelf beside the fireplace. She skimmed the books a moment until she found the one she wanted--a thick, heavy volume bound in brick red with gold filigree down the spine--and moved back toward the sofa, walking behind it. She handed the book to Lea, presumably because he was in the center seat, and rested her elbows on the back of the couch.

"Open it," she said softly, and Lea did so, turning a blank page and then realizing what she'd handed him: a photo album. Each page held four squarish pictures, old and yellowing at the corners, and Lea glanced at Kairi with a bit of a frown, fearing perhaps this was something too personal, something she would want to share with her grandmother alone. Instead, she scooted closer to him and leaned against his arm to get a better look, and Lea felt his heart sort of hiccup behind his ribs. His own family had been tightly knit, once upon a time, but it had been years since he had known that sort of closeness, and somehow being allowed to be a part of this made his chest ache.

"Oh, gracious, don't look at _those_ ," Lynn said, reaching down and sort of waving her hand over the photos. "That's your grandfather and I when we were young things, acting like fools--look how short my skirt was back then!"

Lea looked. Then he laughed. It didn't even show her knees.

"Turn the page, turn the page," Lynn chided, laughing a bit herself, and he did, turning a few more until she reached down again to stop him, pointing to a photo of a young man, about Riku and Kairi's current age, with dishwater blond hair and dark blue eyes. "That's your father," she said to Kairi, "my son. He's seventeen in that picture, it's still one of my favorites. That was right after he graduated from high school." She pointed to the photo below it, of the same boy with his arm around a young woman with dark auburn hair--the same color as Kairi's. "And that's your mother, his high school sweetheart. They were together their last two years of school, and she actually proposed to _him_ at the graduation ceremony."

Lea snorted a laugh. "Yeah, I believe that, from Kairi's ma," he said, and Kairi laughed, but she had a hand by her mouth, her eyes looking a bit watery.

There were wedding photos over the next few pages, Kairi's mother in a fluffy white gown and her father in a deep blue suit. There were pictures of their hands, bound together with silken cord, as was the joining tradition in Radiant Garden. There was a photo of her father holding up a glass of champagne and looking rather regal as he made a speech, a facade which was then promptly ruined when his bride shoved cake into his face on the next page.

After a few more pages of the happy couple, several of which included Lynn and her husband, and then a few pages where her husband was conspicuously missing, there was a photo of Kairi's mother holding a tiny infant.

"Oh... oh my gosh, is that... _me_?" Kairi gasped, looking up at Lynn, who smiled and gave her a nod.

"Yes, my dear, that's you," she said. "You were the light of your mother's eye..." Her expression saddened a bit as Lea turned the page again, to find Kairi's mother absent from any of the images on the following pages. "Sadly, she passed away not long after you were born," she said. "She wasn't in poor health, but there were some complications with the birth that she wasn't able to recover from."

Lea felt like all the air had been stolen from his lungs. Lynn's expression before had said plainly enough that Kairi's parents were no longer with them, but he hadn't expected this part of the story.

"... I see," was all Kairi said, her shoulders slumping. She leaned against Lea's arm a bit more heavily then, reaching over and turning the next page.

There were a few more photos of Kairi as a toddler, then several more when she was four or five years old. Turning another page, Lea found only two photos on this final one, though there were still several pages left in the album, all blank. The last image was of Kairi in a sundress, sitting in her father's lap, both of them wearing flower crowns.

"And... what happened to my father, then?" she asked after a long moment of silence. Lea closed the book and set it on the coffee table as Lynn rounded the sofa and returned to her rocking chair.

"When the Darkness came for all of us," she said grimly, "it came not all at once. Parts of the world seemed to crumble away and vanish into nothingness, while others remained untouched until several days later. Somehow that made it that much more frightening, never knowing when it might strike." She looked at Kairi. "You vanished three days before the shadows took your father and I," she said, "and... your father has yet to return."

Lynn's voice was sad, but somehow resigned as she threaded her hands together in her lap.

"I'm not certain what exactly happened to us during the time this world was lost in the Darkness," she said, "but I like to believe that he knew you were safe from it, and so he went to find your mother."

 

The tea was finished amid much quieter conversation, and it wasn't until Riku happened to glance out the window to twilight did they realize how much time had passed.

"Oh, heavens," Lynn gasped, a hand over her heart, "is it dusk already? I can't believe we've spent nearly the whole day."

"It's been a wonderful day," Kairi said, getting to her feet to collect the teacups and the empty cookie plate to take them to the kitchen. "We're here in Radiant Garden on a mission, though, Grandma," she said then, and Lea glanced at Riku in something of a silent I Told You So. "I... _we_ have a responsibility to the worlds, you see, and... as happy as I am to have found you, I have to continue this mission." She looked at Riku, smiled, and then looked back at Lynn. "Riku and Lea, my friend Sora, and the others, all of us, we're going to make sure Darkness never hurts this world--or any world--ever again."

Lynn reached for the teapot on the tray, giving Kairi a nod.

"You always had something in you that was meant for more than this little world, my darling," she said, and then paused a moment, her eyes falling on the pendant Kairi wore. A smile crossed her face, and she set the teapot down on the table, taking the tray from Kairi. "I understand," she said, setting the tray down as well. "I wouldn't dare keep you from the path that lies ahead of you, but I hope you are able to make a detour here and there to visit me while you're off saving the universe."

"Of _course_ , Grandma!" Kairi said, her eyes watery again as she wrapped her grandmother in an embrace. "Now that I have a starting point, the rest of this journey feels a lot less daunting," she said, burying her face in the old woman's shoulder. "I'll come visit you every chance I get!"

"Bring your friends," Lynn said then, holding Kairi at arm's length and just looking at her for a moment, like she could etch the image of her into her mind. Then she glanced at Riku and Lea and winked. "They're pretty cute. No cute boys ever come see me anymore."

"G-- _Grandma_!"

"She's definitely Kairi's grandma," Lea snorted, nudging Riku in the ribs, and Riku swatted at him, his whole face red as a beet.

They moved toward the doorway, and though Lea did feel a little bad pulling Kairi away from her family this way, she had made it abundantly clear that the mission to reconnect the worlds and stop Xehanort was still her first priority. She had said it herself: this time, she was going to fight, too. This time, she wasn't going to just be sidelined, and he didn't dare even _think_ of suggesting anything of the sort. Before they moved to the porch, Lynn moved back toward the fireplace and removed a frame from the mantle. She pressed it against her heart, then shuffled to the doorway and offered it to Kairi.

"I'd like you to have this," she said, and Kairi extended her hand, taking the picture and looking at it and then looking back up at Lynn in shock.

"But... Grandma, are you sure?" she asked. "Isn't it the only one you have?"

"I've had this picture a long time," she said, refusing to take it back. "It's time it went with you. Your mother and father are still here, in my heart, but you barely had a chance to know them, so I want you to at least know their faces." She reached for Kairi's hand and squeezed it gently, nodding her head. "Take it. I'm sure they would want for you to have it. After all, you've carried a part of them with you all this time as it is, without even knowing."

"Eh?"

"He gave it to her at the wedding," Lynn said, though she didn't explain what she was talking about. "Said something about it being a counter-proposal. She never took it off, but made us promise that it would go to you when she left this world."

Lea glanced at Riku, who just shrugged and twisted the doorknob. It was getting dark; they needed to get to the castle before it got much later. They could figure out grandma's riddles another time. As the three of them stepped out into the fading light of evening, Kairi pulled Lynn into one last hug, then promised once more that she would visit again soon. The door was closed, and they headed back down the walkway toward the cobbled street, and Lea glanced sidelong at Kairi, who was holding the photograph from Lynn's mantle against her chest.

"You okay, princess?" he asked, and Kairi looked up at him with misty eyes.

"I'm more than okay," she said. "Even if I forgot... even if they're gone... they've always been with me."

She paused when they reached the road, and held the photo out to look at it again, then turned it so Riku and Lea could see it as well. It was her parents, her mother visibly pregnant, her father's arm thrown around her shoulders, and while it was certainly a nice picture, Lea wasn't quite sure he understood the meaning behind it and her grandmother's cryptic words. At least, not until Kairi reached up and closed her hand around her pendant. Looking at the photo once more, he saw it then: the same pendant around Kairi's mother's neck, glinting softly in the light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am so sorry this took 84 years. i know 2016 has royally sucked for a lot of people, and sadly i was one of them. i lost a lot that was dear to me this year; 2016 chewed me up and spit me out and broke my heart before chewing me up and spitting me out again. i moved four times, once out of state, and cried way too much way too often. here's hoping 2017 is less cruel, to all of us. barring further disaster, i am going to valiantly attempt to get back to updating once a month. wish me luck!
> 
> PS: i chose Kairi's grandma's name based on two things: one, being that most everyone from RG has fairly short one- or two-syllable names (Lea, Cid, Cloud, Isa, Leon, Tifa... Aeleus is an outlier and should never have been counted); and two, i wanted to keep a water theme, because eyyyyy Kairi and ocean and yeah. so one of the meanings of "Lynn" comes from ancient Gaelic and means 'waterfall' or 'pool'.
> 
> PPS: whoooooo 100k words!


	30. Hare and Hounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is an even more unlikely reunion.

  
Kairi was so elated by the day's events that she barely noticed the rough road that led up to the castle. She barely registered the fact that she had to climb over slabs of concrete in a few places and hardly even realized she'd scraped her knee doing so, until Riku had protested loudly and insisted on Curing her.

"Oh for heaven's sake, Riku," she chuckled, sitting down on the edge of a crumbling wall, "you'd think I'd been run through or something, the noise you made."

"You're _bleeding_ ," he said firmly, frowning at her and gesturing at the wide abrasion across the lower part of her knee. "That's enough, isn't it?"

"Says the guy who still wears a wrist brace because he never got the bone set properly," she countered, shaking her head, and Riku bristled, recoiling his left hand and holding it near his chest for a moment.

"That's completely different," he insisted, and Kairi just cast a look at Lea, which he properly read as _can you even believe this guy?_ and rolled his eyes in response.

Riku cast the healing spell, and Kairi watched with measured fascination as the wound knit itself back together. She had seen restorative magic at work before, but it never stopped being really cool. She licked her thumb and dashed the now-dried blood away (rather to Riku's dismay, it seemed), and hopped back down to her feet, clasping her hands behind her back.

"Let's keep going!" she said, nodding her head up the hill toward the castle. "One more flight of stairs!"

She paused a moment when they reached the white iron gates before the last flight, running her hand over the bars fondly. She hadn't known where these images had come from, but they had stayed with her for all this time. She finally had the answers she'd been seeking for so many years, had finally found the place where she came from, and she'd been able to share that with two of the most important people in her life. She could hardly contain her joy in that moment, biting down on her lip to temper her smile.

Lea grinned at her and pulled the gate open. "Better tone down that smile, Princess," he teased. "People are gonna think you're up to something."

"I can't _help_ it," she admitted, hiding her mouth behind her hand for a moment. "I never thought I would ever figure out where I came from, let alone find my actual grandma." She did a little spin and then reached for Riku's hands when he came up behind her. He took them a bit hesitantly, and she squeezed his fingers. "The _only_ way today could be more awesome would be if Sora could have been here to meet her, too."

Riku chuckled. "He's gonna flip out when you tell him," he said.

"And probably demand to be introduced immediately," Lea added with a snort of laughter.

"Well, I doubt she'd mind if we brought him along next time," Kairi said, and then looked hopefully at Riku. "There'll be a next time, right?"

"Of course!" Riku said, looking a little indignant. "Why are you asking me, anyway? It's not like I'm your boss. You can visit your grandma whenever you want."

"You're _kind of_ like our boss," Lea pointed out, and Kairi giggled. "I mean, you yell at us when we're late for practice..."

"Because punctuality is important--"

"And you don't like it when we goof off," Lea added, and Riku pursed his lips.

"Because you're _supposed_ to be working--!"

"Riku, I think we deserve a raise," Kairi piped up, and Riku just made a frustrated noise.

"You two are impossible," he said, shaking his head.

They continued forward, finding another iron gate painted in white, slightly ajar, before a small cobblestone circle. It looked as though the circle would eventually have paths that led off to both the left and right, but for the time being the gates on either side were chained shut, the ground beyond them still broken and treacherous.

"Seems like they've done a lot of construction here, actually," Lea pointed out as they crossed the circle and reached the base of the staircase that led up to the doors. He gestured downward. "This is all new," he said as Kairi looked at him curiously. "Used to be the postern was the only way to access the castle at all--this whole facade was just sort of hanging in the air with no way to get to it."

"You were here not that long ago, though, weren't you?" Riku asked, frowning. "More recently than Sora and I had been, in any case."

"I..." Lea hefted a sigh and folded his arms, looking a little defensive. "I woke up here," he said vaguely, "but I didn't spend a lot of time getting to know the old neighborhood again. A few laps around the grounds, and then I left and headed for Disney castle." He gave a grim smile and tapped his temple. "Rumors, you know? That Maleficent was up to no good again, and had her sights set on the king's home turf." He pressed his lips together awkwardly and cleared his throat. "After that, I went to see Yen Sid, yadda yadda yadda, and..." He sort of flapped one arm toward Riku. "I mean, you know the rest."

"Right, right, you never really went back home," he said.

"Yeah, so..." He shrugged one shoulder. "This is new to me, too."

"Wait, what?" Kairi made a face at Lea. "You never came back here? All that time we were training, before you started crashing at Riku's?" Her expression soured as he averted his eyes guiltily, and she put her hands on her hips. "Lea, where did you _go_?"

"I spent a lot of time at the beach--"

"You were a _beach hobo_?"

"Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad--"

"Lea, you can't just be a _beach hobo_."

"That's exactly what _I_ said," Riku assured her, folding his own arms and giving Lea an accusatory look.

"Hey, whoa, come on," Lea said, holding his hands up like he surrendered. "Look, I'm _not_ a beach hobo, _sheesh_! Riku saw to that, okay? Can we just... change the subject now? All I did was point out the progress the Restoration Committee was making!" He waved his hands in a shooing sort of gesture and then gave Kairi a long suffering look. "That was then, and this is now."

"Wow, where did you learn how to cast _Deflect_?" Riku asked dryly, and Lea made a disgruntled noise.

"C'mon, Boss Man," he said sharply, clapping Riku on the shoulder just a little too firmly to be entirely friendly, "I'll race ya to the top of the stairs!"

"What? No way, hang on a second--"

"Onetwothree _go_!"

Lea took off, bolting up the stairs as fast as he could, his legs long enough to take them three at a time, and Kairi watched as Riku inevitably sprinted after him before she jogged along behind. She wasn't going to beat them, she knew that much, so why bother getting all sweaty? She had to admit, though, Lea certainly had gotten to know Riku well. If there was one way to change the subject when Riku was involved, it was to challenge him to a competition of some sort; he could never resist.

Lea made it to the top first and let out a triumphant whoop, making finger guns and shooting them toward Riku.

"I win!" he exalted as Riku climbed the top step two footfalls behind him.

"Only because I wasn't ready," Riku complained. "That was a totally unfair race."

"Want a rematch?" There was a teasing grin in Lea's voice as Kairi reached the top step a moment later, and Riku shook his head quickly.

"No time for that now," he said, glancing up at the fading light of dusk.

Kairi looked up as well and then patted Riku's shoulder.

"Yeah, it's gonna be dark soon, and Riku, I know how you hate imposing on people in other worlds." She moved toward the great dark doors of the castle, which loomed up and away from the cobbled walkway like massive trees. "We don't want it to get too late."

"Yeah, we're _not_ spending the night in this castle," Riku said with a full-body shudder. "Aeleus could be the nicest guy in the universe and he couldn't get me to stay here."

" _What_?"

Kairi paused and glanced back over her shoulder to see that Lea had stopped dead in his tracks and appeared to have blanched a few shades.

"Lea?" She tilted her head and frowned. "What is it?"

Lea sort of shook one hand at Riku. "What'd you just say?" he asked, his voice tense, and Riku shook his head a little.

"I said we're not staying here, even if we get invited?" he said, and Lea waved his hands again.

"No, no, no, the _name_ ," Lea said, shaking his head.

"Ae... leus?" Riku ventured.

There was a long moment of silence in which no one moved, and then Lea took half a step back toward the stairs.

"Ah, look, maybe I should just... wait out here," he said, a desperate sort of grin on his face that reminded Kairi of an expression Sora tended to make whenever his mother told a really corny joke. "I mean, Riku, you're the Master, right, Boss Man? I don't really have anything to contribute--"

"Lea, what are you talking about?" Riku asked, giving him a suspicious look. "We agreed we would always address the leader of each world all together. You're going to need this experience for future missions, especially if you're still planning to 'catch up' to me and Sora in no time. Isn't that what you said?"

Kairi narrowed her eyes a little. This wasn't like Lea at all--he was anything but shy, and while he wasn't always particularly interested in meeting a bunch of strangers, he had never specifically tried to opt out.

"Lea, are you okay?" she asked, a little concerned. He looked completely spooked, and it was jarring to see the borderline panicked expression on his usually cool, collected face. 

"Come on, we're wasting time," Riku said, making a somewhat impatient gesture with one hand. "It's almost dark, and we haven't even started the meeting yet. Lea, I get you have baggage here, but if you're really serious about being a Keyblade Master, you can't let personal hangups get in the way of that."

Lea made a face like he'd swallowed something bitter and spicy at the same time, then trudged after Riku toward the door. Riku lifted one fist and rapped crisply, the sound echoing in the little sheltered area by the entrance, and Kairi reached over to tug Lea's sleeve.

"Do you know this Aeleus person?" she whispered, her brow furrowed, and Lea sort of groaned.

"In a manner of speaking," he muttered, awkwardly scratching at the crown of his head. He looked at Riku then. "You know him, too, for that matter," he said, and before Riku could ask what he was talking about, there was the sound of a bolt being opened, and the massive doors creaked ajar.

Kairi looked up--and then a bit _further_ up, as a figure appeared in the doorway. He was _huge_ , a good several inches taller than Lea and twice as broad, with a square jaw and wiry brown hair. He was dressed in a uniform of some sort--a navy blue tunic and white gloves. There was something familiar about this, too, but as with most of her foggy memories of this world, she simply couldn't place why. She realized her mouth had slid open a little in surprise at the sheer magnitude of their apparent host, and she quickly closed it, her teeth clicking together. That was about the time that Riku made a rather undignified choking sound and backpedaled two steps to bump directly into Lea, who simply placed one hand atop his head, perhaps in something like solidarity. Whoever this person was, whatever connection he had with the both of them, it was clearly nothing either of them wanted to remember.

The man in the doorway seemed mostly unperturbed by their strange reactions, regarding Kairi for a moment before his eyes moved to Riku, then to Lea, and then back to Kairi. He gave a soft sigh, then pulled the door open a bit wider.

"Can I help you?" he asked, his voice almost dissonantly soft and reserved in comparison to his size and the stern scowly look about him, and Kairi blinked owlishly up at him.

"Uhm... are... are you Aeleus?" she asked, and then looked at Riku when he made a noise that wasn't quite a moan.

"Aeleus is... an anagram for Lexaeus..." he said, a look of something not unlike horror on his face, and Kairi's jaw dropped when she realized what he was saying. Lexaeus, an anagram? With an X in it? She looked back up at the man and reflexively took a small step back. This man was one of the Organization members? No _wonder_ Lea had tried to back out as soon as he'd heard the name.

Strangely enough, Aeleus didn't seem troubled by their shock and alarm. He simply lifted his eyebrows at Riku and nodded.

"It is," he said, and then looked at Lea again. "Lea," he acknowledged, and Lea gave a forced smile that looked a bit more like a grimace.

"Aeleus," he said, nodding his head a little.

"We were wondering if you were coming back," Aeleus said.

Lea pulled at his neck. "I, uh... got kinda tied up," he said haltingly.

Lexaeus arched one eyebrow. "Mmhm," he said, though he didn't sound convinced.

"We're here to speak with whoever speaks for this world," Kairi said after a moment of awkward silence, and then she glanced at Riku, making a face she hoped looked more encouraging than concerned.

"Don't... don't tell me _the Organization_ is in charge of this world..." Riku said, shaking his head and looking absolutely horrified by this idea.

Aeleus pulled the door open a bit more and stepped aside, a silent invitation for them to enter, and when they hesitated, he shook his head.

"Ansem the Wise has not returned to resume his place as head of this world, and thus we, his apprentices, have taken up the mantle in his absence," he said. "Do not forget that before we lost our hearts, we were denizens of this world, too, and had close ties with its leader, for many years prior to Xehanort's advent. The so-called Organization Xemnas fooled us into believing we were a part of never really existed, truthfully," Aeleus told them then. "We did his dirty work for him, but the entire thing was naught but a front for his personal goals," he said, and shook his head. His bright blue eyes lingered on Riku for a moment. "The three of you have nothing to fear here," he said. "Our allegiances with Xehanort and his ilk have been terminated."

"I think that's the most words I've ever heard you speak all at once," Lea said, looking caught somewhere between surprised and impressed, and Aeleus just rolled his eyes.

"Are you coming inside or not?"

The three of them hesitantly moved through the ingress, and Kairi found her eyes sweeping upward. There was something painfully familiar about this castle, as well, though she couldn't put her finger on how or why. She may have been a Princess of Heart, but her blood was no bluer than anyone's, so far as she knew--her grandmother certainly hadn't mentioned being royalty of any sort, so why would she have any memories of being in a castle?

The ceiling was so high above them here in the foyer that in the dim light of encroaching night it almost looked like it wasn't even there, the walls simply recessing into shadows. Great crystal sconces hung on the walls, far higher than anyone could logically reach, casting diffused golden-white light across the room and fuzzy indigo and grey into the corners.

Aeleus closed the great wooden doors behind them, then paused a moment before gesturing toward a hallway.

"If you'll follow me, we can speak in one of the sitting rooms," he said.

Kairi exchanged a slightly unsettled glance with Riku, then took a deep breath and nodded, following Aeleus down the hall. She heard Riku and Lea's footsteps behind her, and a part of her felt a little important all of a sudden. Both of them had some obvious history with this guy, and it was bad enough that neither of them seemed to want to speak, so maybe it was time to step up and be more of a leader on this one.

"So..." she said after a long pause, "since the Organization is gone, then you're on our side now?" She instantly regretted her words. That sounded so rude when she put it that way! How could she have said such a thing? Ugh, great leadership, Kairi, good job.

Aeleus made a noise that might have been the barest hint of a chuckle, but it was impossible to tell for certain.

"You speak of sides as if we have a choice in the matter," he said, giving Kairi a sidelong look. "For us, the apprentices who studied under Ansem and were then duped by Xehanort, there is only one road for us now: that which leads to Xehanort's demise."

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean--"

"You meant what you said," Aeleus assured her, and Kairi hunched her shoulders a bit, "but I take no offense. While it's true we were enemies once, our mutual hatred for Xehanort now makes us allies, at the very least." He glanced over his shoulder toward Riku as they headed down a hallway dimly lit with candles. "I do not blame you for what you did, Riku," he said, and then turned forward again, "nor you, Lea. We all did things we aren't especially proud of in order to survive."

Lea hefted a sigh. "Uh... I appreciate that," he said awkwardly, "but honestly, _your_ vengeful wrath was always the one I was _least_ concerned about."

"Oh?" Aeleus sounded amused, and Kairi had to admit she was surprised. If Lea wasn't worried that this guy was angry at him for whatever he'd done, then who _was_ he worried about? Were they going to meet somebody even _bigger_?

Before Lea had a chance to expound, Aeleus pushed open another heavy wooden door that led into a study of some sort. There was a fireplace in the corner, and a large, heavy wooden desk near it. Several chairs dotted the space in front of the fireplace, arranged on a decorative rug, and a second door stood slightly ajar against an adjacent wall. A broad-shouldered man with black hair twisted into a cascade of dreadlocks was seated at the desk, thumbing through a heavy book. He was wearing the same navy tunic, but had removed his gloves, leaving them resting on the desk beside his book. He glanced up when Aeleus stepped into the room.

"More kids playing ding dong ditch?" he asked, and Aeleus shook his head and stepped aside to allow Kairi, Riku, and Lea to follow him. The man at the desk looked confused, but as soon as Lea entered the room, his expression crashed into something like long-suffering annoyance. "Oh," he said, returning his attention to the book, "hello, Lea. Nice of you to join us." His voice dripped with sarcasm, and Lea gave a grating sigh. Kairi tensed; was this the person whose ire Lea was afraid of?

"Yo, Dilan," he replied stiffly, his smile more of a sneer. "Good to see you're as charming as ever."

Maybe not. This Dilan fellow seemed irritated with Lea, but not belligerent. She guessed that wasn't so condemnable--even she and Riku got irritated with Lea. He could be pretty annoying sometimes.

"What happened to slumming it in the basement?" Lea asked then, glancing at Aeleus. "Isn't all of your... you know..." He gestured vaguely. "Scientific gobbledigook down there?"

"We decided to remove ourselves from that environment," he said. "After being returned to this world with our hearts intact, it didn't feel right to remain in the place we had served a false leader for so long." He rubbed his chin. "Ienzo does still linger in the lower study often," he said, "but we've moved most of our operation to the main level of the castle." 

Aeleus gestured to the seats around the fireplace then. 

"Please, won't you three sit?" he asked. "If you're here to speak about the state of the worlds, Dilan and I would be interested in hearing what you have to say."

Kairi sat down in the chair closest to the fire, and Riku in the chair beside it. Lea, however, remained standing, looking defensive with his arms folded and his back against the wall. It worried her sometimes, the way he was so guarded. He had come a long way in the months they had been working together, but it was still very clear that his time in the Organization had traumatized him on some level. He still had trouble exposing his back to anyone but the two of them, she had noticed--he never stood facing away from someone if he could help it, and only really seemed to relax when he had his back to something solid. Apparently, in this situation, the back of a chair wasn't good enough.

Aeleus sat in the chair opposite from Kairi and Riku, while Dilan swiveled in the chair behind the desk and propped his ankle up on his opposite knee, resting his elbow on the edge of the desk and his jaw against his fist. "When did they start sending children as diplomatic ambassadors to other worlds, anyway?" he asked dryly. Kairi frowned, but held her tongue as Aeleus shot him a warning look, and she saw Riku puff up like an angry cat, though the inevitable sound of frustration he made was far too high pitched for anyone to hear. Dilan rolled his eyes, then glanced at Lea. "For that matter, Lea, what are you doing with these two?" he asked, his tone benign despite the slightly accusatory choice of words.

"Nothing that concerns you," Lea replied tersely.

"So _rude_. Too good for your old friends, now?" Dilan pressed, and Lea's eyes narrowed venomously.

"I would hardly call the ties we had friendly," he said, his voice steely, and Riku cleared his throat pointedly.

"If we could get back to the subject at hand?" he ventured, looking caught somewhere between really annoyed and slightly apprehensive. Kairi could relate: this room felt way too tense. She could see why Lea had been so quick to want to back out once he learned who they would be meeting with. "Let's save the reunion for after we talk about why we're here."

"Agreed," Aeleus said, casting another sharp look Dilan's way. "There will be time to discuss personal grievances later. For now, let's stay on topic." 

He looked back at Riku then, and despite the authoritative tone in his voice, Riku looked like he was fighting an overwhelming urge to shrink back into the chair. What had happened between these two? Riku wasn't the fearful sort, but he seemed genuinely concerned that Aeleus was just going to get up and squash him or something.

Riku took a deep breath and held it a moment, then blew out a sigh and turned to peer reproachfully at Dilan.

"We're not exactly ambassadors," he said, his words clipped. Kairi smiled a little, noting how stiff his posture was; she was reminded of when he had to do oral presentations in class, years ago. He would spend hours practicing in front of the mirror to get his expression and stance just right. "I'm sure that as Ansem's apprentices, you've all been aware for some time that there are other worlds and that they were once connected." He waited for the other men to nod before continuing. "The worlds were separated to keep them safe, but now that this fight is coming to a head, we may need the help of the hearts we've connected with on other worlds in order to achieve victory."

"Who, exactly, is 'we'?" Dilan asked, frowning a little.

"All of us fighting for the Light," Kairi spoke up before Riku could. She straightened her back a little, looking at Dilan seriously before turning her eyes to Aeleus. "We've all made connections with the people we've met on other worlds, and those connections make us stronger. The more we have to fight for, to protect, the more powerful the Light becomes."

"Yeah, or the more you have to lose if you blow it," Dilan snorted, twisting his little finger in his ear.

"Dilan, that's enough," Aeleus scolded, and Dilan just rolled his eyes. Aeleus gave a tolerant sigh and looked back at Kairi and Riku. "I'm still not certain what you need from _us_ ," he admitted. "We may have worked with Xehanort for many years, but he guarded his secrets well; if you are hoping for a list of weak points, you won't find one among those of us here."

Riku shook his head.

"We had no idea that you would even be here," he said; "we didn't come for inside info. We came to ask if this world is safe, stable."

Aeleus squinted, looking somewhat confused. "We still have a lot of work to do," he said, "before Radiant Garden will really be _safe_ for its denizens once more."

Kairi waved a hand. "The construction isn't what we're concerned about," she said. "We just need to know if there are still Hea--"

She gasped sharply and turned when the sound of shattering glass interrupted her, and Riku leapt to his feet. Lea was still standing against the wall, arms folded, but now he stood at a slight angle, like he'd been knocked off kilter from the hips up. Beside him, presumably where his head had been only an instant before, was a smoking patch of neon green liquid, which appeared to be eating away at the top layer of the wall.

"Even," Lea said with a grin that was too shallow, "it's nice to see that getting your heart back has done nothing for your temper."

Kairi followed Lea's line of sight to the other side of the room, then, and something in her gut squelched. The door that had been previously only slightly ajar now stood wide open, and in the ingress stood a man with long ashy blond hair and acid green eyes, one of which was twitching visibly. In one hand he held a flask of what looked like the same green liquid, having presumably thrown his first flask at Lea's head from across the room. She was quite sure she'd never met this man, even in the time she'd spent in the dungeons of the Castle That Never Was, but something inside of her felt sick and frightened by his presence. She wrapped her arms around herself and sort of sank back into her chair, wishing suddenly to just cover her ears and squeeze her eyes closed and disappear from this room.

"Oh boy, here we go," Aeleus sighed, lowering his face into one hand.

"You've got a _lot of nerve_ showing your face here," Even snarled, and Kairi watched him stalk toward Lea, who seemed completely unfazed by the advance. "You're _lucky_ you had left by the time I regained consciousness the day we were returned," he went on, a ragged, almost frenzied edge to his voice.

"Lucky?" Lea snorted. "I make my own luck, Even; I was gone on purpose, and frankly I was hoping to avoid ever seeing your ugly face again." He clicked his tongue. "Ah, well. I guess you can't win 'em all."

As Kairi watched in alarm, Even snapped one hand out and tangled his fingers in the front of Lea's sweatshirt, yanking him forward and holding the flask up beside his head. Lea, to his credit, didn't even flinch. Later Kairi would be impressed about that, but in the moment she was more afraid of whatever was in that flask coming into contact with his skin. "Give me _one good reason_ not to _melt your traitorous face off_ \--"

There was a soft singing sound and a burst of light then, and Even made a noise in the back of his throat as the sharp, pointed edge of Way to the Dawn materialized a breath away from his neck.

"Back. off," Riku said coldly, overemphasizing each word.

Even's lip curled in something like disdain, but he obligingly took a step back, lifting his hands, pulling the flask of green liquid away from Lea. "I see you brought a bodyguard along," he said, eyes still locked on Lea. He gave a coarse chortle. "Can't even fight your own battles anymore? Pathetic." 

This time it was Lea who moved, jerking forward and shoving Even backward with both hands, sending the older man stumbling, genuinely startled by how quickly Lea had moved. This time, Kairi _did_ close her eyes, covering them with her hands and tucking her legs up in the chair. She didn't know why this blond man's ire was so frightening, or why the sudden look of rage in Lea's eyes made her heart hurt, but she couldn't look at it any longer.

"Shut your damn mouth, Even," Lea growled, and Kairi heard Even shift, and then there was another soft, bright sound like a faroff song. Lea had drawn his Keyblade, it seemed, and she peeked through her fingers to see the curved, spiky head of the weapon pointed at Even's face. "Riku isn't my bodyguard, he's a Keyblade Master, and he's my _teacher_."

There was a beat of silence, and then Even began to laugh. It was a caustic, abrasive sound, like sandpaper against your cheek, and it sent goosebumps up and down Kairi's arms.

"A _Keyblade_?" Even guffawed. " _You_ have a _Keyblade_?" His laughter grew even louder, almost hysterical, and he struggled a moment to catch his breath. "I'd heard they were giving them out to practically _anyone_ these days, but _you_? What a _joke_." He slapped his knee, staggering a moment and placing the flask on the desk beside Dilan, who hadn't said a word through this entire exchange, and was instead looking very entertained by everything, like he wished he had a bucket of popcorn. Aeleus looked surprised by the turn of events, but not enough to comment, apparently.

Even wiped a tear from his eye, still fighting to keep his laughter at bay, it seemed, as he raked a hand back through his long hair. 

"If the side of Light has grown so desperate as to turn to _you_ for help, then we may as well just throw the towel in right now," he said, shaking his head. "Xehanort has absolutely nothing to worry about, clearly."

Riku bared his teeth and sliced Way to the Dawn through the air, though the blade was several inches from any part of Even's body.

"You don't get to say that," he barked. "You have no idea how hard Lea's been working--"

"I don't _need_ to, boy," Even interrupted sharply, looking at Riku like he was an insect. "It doesn't matter how hard he works or how desperately he tries to change who and what he is--a traitor will always be a traitor, a murderer a murderer."

Kairi felt cold all of a sudden. A murderer? She knew Axel had defected from the Organization, which did, technically, make him a traitor, but a _murderer_? It couldn't be true--he had to be lying, trying to shake their trust in him. Her eyes moved from Lea to Riku and then back to Lea, but in the moment, neither of them even seemed to realize she was still in the room.

"What d'you mean 'murderer'?" Riku asked, one eye narrowed suspiciously. He glanced at Lea and then back to Even, his grip on the hilt of his Keyblade still tight.

Even brought a hand to his mouth. "Why, he didn't even tell you?" he asked melodramatically. "And here I thought he'd have bragged about it."

Lea lowered his blade and glared at Even, but somehow the venom had bled out of his stance and he just looked tired beneath his anger.

"I did what I had to do, Even," he said, his voice icy and quiet. "And don't you dare tell me you'd have done anything different in my shoes."

Kairi swallowed, unfolding her legs and sitting up a bit. The whole situation had escalated all in an instant, and whatever had happened between Axel and this Even person's Nobody, it had clearly been awful, but she still wasn't quite ready to believe that Axel had _murdered_ anyone. The haunted look behind Lea's eyes told her that there was a lot more to this story than even Even seemed privy to.

Even just squinted one eye in contempt, then turned to glance at Riku. "A word to the wise, 'Keyblade Master'," he said, and though he didn't make quotes with his hands or anything, the sentiment was there in his voice, "don't ever show your back to this one. You may think he's your student, but he'll turn on you the second it benefits him. His allegiances have always lain with himself and no one else."

"You're _wrong_ ," Riku said without missing a beat, and Kairi was a little bit proud of him in that instant. "Axel may have been every bit the traitor you say he was, but Lea _isn't_." His electric blue eyes were bright and steely with righteous anger, and he lifted his chin a little, taking half a step closer to Even. "I don't care what you have to say; I trust him, and I _won't_ have you badmouthing my student."

Even was quiet for a moment, looking a little shocked by this rebuttal. He turned to glower at Riku then, his nose wrinkled in distaste. "Ugh, you've grown even more insufferable since the last time I saw you," he spat. "It's really no wonder your replica turned against me. A replica is truly only as good as the mold it's cast from." 

Kairi saw Lea's eyes flash angrily again, saw his shoulders rise and fall as he tried to steady his breathing, but he was clearly _really_ angry about this particular topic. Lea's eyes flicked to her for an instant, and then he did a doubletake, holding her gaze for a good three or four seconds. The rage faded from his gaze almost instantly, and he lowered his eyes then, something like confusion clouding his expression. He shook his head quickly, then focused on Even again, though he was radiating far less anger this time.

"The Replica Project was a cruel joke and you know it, Even," he said coldly. "There's a reason even _Xemnas_ moved to have it shut down."

Even narrowed his eyes at Lea, then scoffed, turning his gaze back to Riku. "I guess it takes a traitor to trust one, doesn't it?" he posited, his grin returning. "You betrayed _your_ comrades as well. Perhaps that's the _true_ prerequisite for wielding a Keyblade."

Riku didn't flinch, but Kairi could see something in his posture waver at those words. She knew all too well just how hard Riku still was on himself for everything that had happened back then, and though she and Sora had never once damned his actions, he more than made up for that damning him _self_. She almost wanted to stand up and tell Even off, to show Riku that no matter what he said, she still believed in him, but Aeleus spoke before she had the chance.

"Enough, Even," he said, getting to his feet and giving the other man a stern look. "You've said your piece. We still have business to attend to."

Even made a sibilant noise and snatched up the flask from the desk, stalking back toward the doorway from which he'd entered.

"Wasted a perfectly good batch of acid," he grumbled as he departed, and Kairi glanced back at the spot on the wall, which was now thoroughly blackened and still smoking. It was a good thing Lea apparently had reflexes like a cat.

Lea and Riku both dismissed their Keyblades once Even was gone, and Lea just hefted a sigh.

"I see now," Aeleus said with a thin smile, "what you were so... 'tied up' with." 

Lea bristled like someone had dropped ice down his back and then gave Aeleus a sheepish look. "Er... about the wall," he said, rubbing the back of his neck as he glanced at Aeleus. "Sorry, I guess."

Aeleus frowned at the smoking blotch on the wall, then shrugged one shoulder. "I could hardly have asked for you to get hit in the face with acid to save the study walls," he admitted, and then lifted one eyebrow pointedly. "I suppose we can just bill you later. You Keyblade weilders make pretty good munny, don't you?"

Lea managed a halfhearted laugh. "Like I said," he chortled dryly, " _yours_ was never the wrath I was concerned about."

Riku returned to his chair, but not before giving Lea a somewhat pointed look Kairi couldn't quite decipher. She had a feeling that there was going to be a long discussion later. She didn't think Riku would take Even's 'murderer' accusation at face value, but this was definitely something that warranted a bit more investigation. His eyes swung to her, and Kairi realized she was still sort of scrunched down in her chair. Quickly sitting up straight again, she tried to shake the unsettled feeling Even's advent had left her with.

' _Are you okay?_ ' Riku mouthed silently at her, and she nodded, rubbing her arms. She still didn't know where the feeling had come from, or why, but there would be time to worry about that later.

"My apologies for the interruption," Aeleus said, giving Kairi a nod of acknowledgment. "Even has always been a bit..."

"Extra?" Lea suggested wryly after a beat of silence, and Kairi stifled a snort of laughter into her hand at his word choice. Aeleus huffed a sigh.

"In any case," he said, folding his hands in his lap, "where were we?"

Kairi cleared her throat, trying to regain her poise. They were going to face things far more frightening than Even and his acid; she couldn't let the little things shake her.

"The construction going on isn't a problem," she said, "it's Heartless we're concerned about."

"This world was the first to fall," Riku said, looking seriously at Aeleus, "and even if the Heartless Manufactory beneath this castle isn't running anymore, if something were to go wrong with the computer systems..."

"The Manufactory has been shut down and disconnected from the main system," Aeleus assured them, waving one meaty hand. "After Leon informed us that it went haywire a few times, we decided it was safer to just leave it completely dormant and without power. Now that the MCP has been destroyed, it's probably not a threat anymore, but the last thing any of us wants is for Radiant Garden to crumble away once more."

"And there haven't been any Heartless attacks recently?" Kairi asked.

"None," Aeleus said, shaking his head. "Trust me, we've been very vigilant when it comes to the forces of Darkness." He glanced at Lea then. "We may still have our differences," he said, "but the one thing that all of us can agree on is that we don't want to lose our hearts, or our home, to Xehanort ever again."

"We've got surveillance on the Manufactory 24/7," Dilan piped up then, his arms folded across his chest now, "and even though the security system has been shut off, the tracking that was used to activate it hasn't been."

Riku grimaced and rubbed the crown of his head. "Yeah," he said, "I found that out the hard way."

"If any Heartless show up, or anything or any _one_ possessing a dangerous level of dark energy, we'll know about it as soon as they set foot on this world," Aeleus said.

"Then, would it be acceptable for us to connect Radiant Garden to the growing network?" Riku asked, seeming a bit calmer now that Aeleus had done nothing even remotely vengeful in his direction. "I dunno if anyone told you, or if you read about the train system, but Master Yen Sid has charged us with reconnecting worlds that are safe from Darkness, so that when the time comes to face Xehanort, we have access to all the help we can get."

Dilan rubbed his chin.

"A train system?" he asked, furrowing his brow. "One that connects multiple worlds? This is the first I've heard of it. Where does it go?"

"At the moment, we've only connected maybe a dozen worlds," Kairi said. "It's been kind of slow-going."

"Would we be able to use this system?" Aeleus asked, and Riku hesitated, then nodded.

"World leaders can use it, sure," he said, "but probably not the, uh... general populace, just yet." He rubbed his chin. "I know there are a lot of people on this world who already know about other worlds, so if the Restoration Committee needs to get supplies or anything from another world, I'm sure that's probably okay, too."

"That might actually be a big help," Dilan admitted, wagging a finger in the air and looking at Aeleus. "Our resources here are pretty limited, and that obnoxious woman with the dark hair keeps harranguing me about needing more rebar." He shook his head. "Like I got rebar coming out my ears."

Aeleus looked back at Kairi and Riku and gave a nod.

"Connect Radiant Garden to the other worlds," he said. "I assure you, discretion will be our top priority. Having access to other worlds without the limitations of Gummi Ship travel should make the construction efforts here go much faster."

Riku nodded and got to his feet. "Excellent," he said, and paused for a moment before approaching Aeleus' chair and offering his hand. "Thank you," he said, "for speaking with us."

Aeleus' hand dwarfed Riku's, but he shook it politely enough as he stood.

"I hope that we can work together to take Xehanort down, despite the things in our history," he said. "Don't let Even's actions color your opinions of us here in this castle. Even holds grudges far closer to his heart than the rest of us, but even he can probably be convinced to stay civil when the time comes to face our enemies."

"I'll remember that," Riku said, and looked at Kairi. "Let's get going, then," he said, and Kairi eagerly got to her feet. Aeleus and Dilan seemed okay, but she was still more than ready to go home.

"Kairi, Riku." Lea stepped away from the wall and gave them an uncomfortable look. "Can you two, ah... wait for me outside?" he asked. "I won't be long, there's just... something I need to do before I leave."

Kairi grimaced. "Not going back for round two with Even, I hope," she said, trying to keep her voice light, and Lea blew a raspberry.

"Hell no," he said, waving a hand dismissively. "That jerkwad can stew in his righteous indignation until he's well done, for all I care." He put a hand on Kairi's shoulder, then looked at Riku. "I promise I won't come out with half my face burned off, okay?"

Riku gave him a slightly too serious look. "Don't think I'll go easy on your training from now on if you _do_ ," he said, and Lea chuffed a soft laugh.

"Deal," he said.

Riku met Kairi's eye and then jerked his chin toward the doorway.

"We can show ourselves out," he said, and Aeleus nodded.

"If we come across any movements from Xehanort's people, you'll be the first to know," he said, and Riku smiled a little.

"That's appreciated."

"Oh, and Riku," Aeleus said then. Riku paused and looked back at him. Aeleus didn't smile, but there was something appraising in his expression. "It's good to see you finally got over your fear of the dark."

Riku stiffened a little, then turned quickly and headed for the door again, waving a hand over his shoulder in valediction. Kairi followed Riku out into the corridor that led back to the main doorway, and gave a heavy sigh.

"Well, that was... exciting," she said dryly, and Riku just shook his head, looking a little overwhelmed himself.

"Tell me about it," he said. "Of all the people we could have met with, the former Organization members are definitely like the _last_ people I expected."

"What happened between you and Aeleus?" she asked then, knowing it was a bold question, but her burning curiosity was killing her. "I mean, I know that he worked for the Organization, which is certainly enough call for caution, but you looked like you were expecting him to twist your head off."

Riku was quiet for a long moment, then glanced sidelong at her. "I killed him, Kairi," he said. "When Sora and I were trapped in Castle Oblivion, I faced him there, and I gave into Ansem..."--he shook his head--"into Xehanort's Darkness within me, and I killed Lexaeus."

Kairi's eyes widened. Of course she had figured Riku had done his share of damage over the years, but hearing him say so plainly that he had _killed_ someone, even when that someone had been a Nobody who believed they didn't truly exist, it was sobering.

"I was still afraid, back then," Riku went on, reaching for the big wooden front door and pulling it open. It groaned at the movement, echoing in the open foyer. "I was afraid of that Darkness, and couldn't control it properly."

"So that's what Aeleus meant, then," Kairi said, smiling a little, "when he said you had gotten over your fear of the dark."

Riku chortled. "He taunted me, during that fight," he said, ushering Kairi outside and pulling the door closed behind them, "saying that it was a waste, for me to have so much power and yet be afraid to use it." He shook his head. "So I turned around and used that power to kill him, like I had something to prove." He sighed and kneaded his forehead. "Light, I was such a _jerk_ back then."

"A little," Kairi said, and Riku looked indignant.

"You didn't have to agree so quickly," he said, shoulders slumping, though it was obvious he was at least half joking.

Kairi reached for his hand and squeezed it, smiling at him.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "That was then, and this is now, and _now_ is what's important. Our history with the Organization members hasn't exactly been stellar in the past, but... with Lea as your student, and with Aeleus and the others here as our allies--begrudging or not--I think maybe it's time _Xehanort_ started worrying, don't you?"

Riku stared at her a moment, then smiled. "Yeah," he said. "Time for _him_ to be the one who's afraid, not of the dark, but of the Light."

Kairi sat down on the top step that led back down into town, sweeping her bangs out of her face and staring off at the last wisps of pink and orange as they faded from the horizon. "I hope Lea won't be long," she said, looking at Riku as he sat down beside her. "I... really want to ask him about..."

She trailed off, and Riku sighed softly.

"Me too," he said. "I'm sure that whatever the truth is, it won't change anything. I've done plenty of awful things, but you and Sora never gave up on me."

She smiled and listed sideways, resting her head on Riku's shoulder, chuckling softly when she felt him go rigid at this action.

"It's not in our nature to give up," she said. "You've learned that by now, but... I guess it's time _Lea_ learned, huh?"

Riku's wordless sound of affirmation was reply enough in the moment, and as they sat there on the stairs and watched sunset finally give way to night, all Kairi could think was that no matter what they found, no matter what they learned, they were always going to have each other. Nothing, especially not the past, could take that away from them now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this wound up taking like two weeks longer than I expected it to. I got a new job and suddenly I have like zero free time orz. Anyway, please let me know what you think! I may have had way too much fun with the ex-Org folks, so I hope you enjoyed them too. Your comments always make my day!
> 
> PS: the title of this chapter, if anyone is curious, is a nod to an idiom i've always been fond of: 'to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds'. it means to try and play both sides of something. all of the ex-Org members are kind of in a weird spot on that subject, so it seemed like a good way to tie in a fun saying i don't think a lot of people are familiar with.


	31. Guilty By Dissociation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lea eats a bit of crow.

  
As soon as Riku and Kairi left the room, Dilan let out a long, spluttering raspberry sound that gave way to a wheezing sort of laugh. Lea turned and cast a baleful look at him, shaking his head. The only time Dilan had ever really laughed was when it was at someone else's expense (or when he was high as Memory's Skyscraper, but that was an entirely different story), so he knew he was about to be on the receiving end of some mocking disdain.

"Share with the class," Lea chided patronizingly, folding his arms and arching one eyebrow. Dilan just shook his head, dropping his elbow onto the desk and plunking his chin in his palm.

"Share what? The joke?" he asked, and then snorted again. "It's _you_. A Keyblade? _Really_? Even got _that much_ right: they really _will_ hand one of those out to anybody, apparently."

To his credit, Lea was only marginally irritated by this show of ridicule. He had learned long ago that Dilan was the sort to always find fault with others, regardless of the situation or what context he may or may not have had. He had understood, even as a child, why Dilan had been such an effective guard: he had a genuine mean streak that, while tempered and often far more subtle than this raucous guffawing, was very efficient in intimidating others. He had never managed to figure out what exactly had happened to Dilan to make him the way he was--cold, standoffish, frequently bitter, and obsessed with strength--but in the end, it had never much mattered to him. Dilan had never been his friend any more than Xaldin had been Axel's, and whatever hangups the older man had, whatever drove him to harden his heart even now so soon after having it returned to him, it was no concern of Lea's.

"And have you even _looked_ at the damn thing?" Dilan went on, lifting a hand as if to gesture at the Keyblade in question, though Lea wasn't about to call it up again just to be mocked. "It's a fishing hook _on fire_ stuck on the end of one of your stupid chakrams! I don't know who comes up with those things, but it looks like they only had about thirty seconds to slap something together for you."

"Laugh all you like, Dilan," he said, rolling his eyes, "at least I've got more to occupy my time than moldy books." He narrowed his gaze. "I dunno why you're even bothering to wear that old uniform anymore. Your job is obsolete."

Dilan got to his feet so sharply the chair was almost knocked backward as it scooted away. Lea fought the urge to roll his eyes again. Really, he was so _dramatic_.

"Just because it no longer has a master does _not_ mean this castle can be left unguarded," Dilan snarled, all previous amusement having fled his expression. " _You_ may have abandoned your home to go play among those sniveling _children_ , but some of us have _real_ work to do."

"Really." Lea examined his fingernails. "Like reading cozily by the fire?"

"That's enough, both of you," Aeleus said sharply, snapping one hand up as if to strike someone, though they were both beyond his arm's reach. "Lea, we don't have to all be friends here--in fact I'm fairly sure that's impossible--but can we at least aim for a little civility?"

" _He_ started it," Lea muttered, not even caring how immature it sounded in the moment, and Aeleus sighed.

"And Dilan, we can't afford to be picky; if a Keyblade chooses to come when Lea calls it, that has to stand for something," he said, and Dilan sat back down with a huff. "Have you forgotten that we need _seven_ lights to defeat Xehanort?"

"Of course not," he harrumphed. "I just don't think Lea's even remotely qualified to be _one_ of them." He scoffed, curling his lip a little as he threw Lea another derisive look. "I guess you're right, though: beggars can't be choosers."

"Well, I appreciate the 'constructive criticism'," Lea snapped, making quotes with his fingers, "but nobody _asked_ you."

Aeleus pinched the bridge of his nose, and Lea almost felt a little sorry for him. Always the mediator, he wouldn't have been the slightest bit surprised to learn that Aeleus had a constant low-grade migraine.

"What was it you needed, Lea?" he asked, pulling his hand away from his face and lifting his eyes to him. There was something almost pleading in the large man's gaze, like he just really wanted him to leave so they could get back to their Grumpy Party or something.

Lea hefted a sigh and slid his hands into his pockets. "You, ah..." He cleared his throat and averted his eyes, a sullen sort of look on his face. "You said Ienzo hangs out downstairs, right?"

"Are you going to antagonize him?" Aeleus asked, and Lea gave him a comically indignant scowl.

" _No_ ," he said, hunching his shoulders, and Aeleus' mouth twitched up in what was _almost_ a ghost of a smile.

"Then yes, he's downstairs," Aeleus said, leaning down to stoke the fire in the fireplace with the iron poker. "Probably in the lab next to the old study."

Lea inhaled as if to respond, hesitated, then closed his mouth. Ugh, why was it still so hard to say it? Just _say_ it, dumbass. "Ah... thanks," he muttered, clearing his throat like the word had somehow gotten stuck there on the way out of his mouth. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder and backpedaled awkwardly. "I'll just... go... then," he said haltingly, and turned quickly, walking stiff-legged out of the room and back down the dimly lit corridor.

He took a deep breath as he strode down the hallway, rubbing his arms as he walked. He wasn't cold--he was rarely cold--but something about these old walls just gave him goosebumps. Too many eerie memories, too many shadows; this castle had been both the beginning of the end of his life as he had known it, back then, and it still made him uncomfortable, even now. Perhaps _moreso_ now, for that matter, now that it was all in the past and he'd gotten his heart back. Now he could reflect on everything and be horrified retroactively by what he and Isa had been subjected to. What they _all_ had been subjected to, really--Aeleus, Dilan, Even, and Ienzo might have been Xehanort's colleagues, but they had been duped and lied to as well.

The fall of Radiant Garden had taken a heavy toll on the castle, but even so, Lea had to admit it was impressive it had survived at all. He recalled the first time he'd returned to Hollow Bastion after Garden had been forgotten to the Darkness, remembered standing at the edge of a great floating stone ledge and watching the water rise up from the depths beneath the castle. He remembered watching the reflection of blue light ripple against the battered towers and broken scaffolding, remembered his hand moving, unbidden, to the front of his coat and tangling in the lapel, like he'd been reaching for something to hold onto. He remembered wondering what he was supposed to feel in that moment, before remembering it didn't matter, because he couldn't feel anything anyway. In retrospect, he could _still_ feel the emptiness that had stricken him that day, even if he hadn't been able to acknowledge it all those years ago. Maybe he had simply had an easier time ignoring it back then, but no matter how removed you think you are from your hometown, looking at it after it's been destroyed has a way of affecting even the hardest of hearts. Or lack thereof.

The hallway opened up back into the main entrance hall, Lea's footsteps suddenly echoing off the high ceiling like the ticking of an old clock. He cast a glance toward the stairs that led to the library, then rubbed his arms again and headed to the opposite side of the room. He pushed open the doorway there, frowning as it creaked in the semidarkness of the foyer, and squinted. There were no lights illuminating this corridor. Either Aeleus and the others hadn't bothered to rewire the lighting here, or they simply didn't use this hallway enough to bother turning the lights on, but whatever the reason, as the door swung shut behind him Lea found himself cloaked in complete black. He held up one hand and called a tongue of flame to his palm, an uneasy expression on his face. Lea had long ago gotten over any fear of the dark. He'd spent twelve years steeped in it, after all; he couldn't really afford the luxury of apprehension. It still made him uneasy, though, to walk down these familiar old hallways amid jumping shadows and the thudding of his own heart in his ears. The deeper he went, the more stagnant the air seemed to get, and before long, he could tell he was nearing another area that had been damaged in the Fall. The floor beneath him became littered with broken pieces of wall and ceiling, and patches of the floor were torn away, revealing bare earth beneath them. There was no sound but that of his own footfalls, his own breathing, and his own pulse, and never in his life had he heard silence so loud. This hallway felt like a tomb, and he picked up his pace, suddenly all too eager to get out of there.

After hustling through the twisting maze that led to the study, Lea breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the door was open and the lights were on inside. Thank Light; even _he_ could only take wandering around in the dark for so long before his mind started to play tricks. He walked up to the ingress and leaned in without crossing the threshhold, knocking his knuckles lightly against the door.

"'Lo?" he called, his eyes skirting around the room. The rounded desk was covered in open books and scattered papers, a quill in an ink bottle resting precariously close to the edge. "Ienzo?" There were gaps in the bookshelves where many volumes had been removed and then placed on top of the cases rather than placed back where they belonged, and one of the large paintings on the walls had been taken down to reveal a safe behind it. Lea frowned a little--he'd never known there was a safe there. He wondered what was in it. 

He knocked on the open door one more time, and when he still got no reply, he stepped inside and made his way toward the safe on the wall. Well, if he was going to have to wait around, he might as well make use of the time, right? Glancing over his shoulder, he gave the room one last sweep of his eyes, then pressed his ear against the door of the safe. He'd never actually cracked a safe before, but they made it look so _easy_ in the movies; surely a clever fellow like himself could figure it out. He gently twisted the knob, waiting for the click all those heist movies promised would tell him he was on the right track--

"Staying out of trouble, as usual, I see."

"Uwaugh--! _Oww_!"

Lea gave such a vicious start at the unexpected voice that he knocked his forehead soundly against the steel door of the safe, staggering backward and clutching at his brow with one hand. With a muttered curse, he shot a glower toward the younger man standing in the study doorway.

"Doesn't _anybody_ around here knock?" he grumbled, and Ienzo arched one eyebrow (or so Lea presumed, since it was the eyebrow hidden behind his trainwreck of a haircut).

"Last I checked, this wasn't your study," Ienzo said smoothly, a heavy book tucked under one arm and a stack of papers in his other hand. "I wasn't expecting company, so I didn't knock. You understand."

Lea rubbed his forehead again, rather convinced he was going to have a bruise there, and then gave a sharp sigh. Ienzo--and by association Zexion--had always managed to get on every single nerve he had, seemingly effortlessly, at that, but Lea wasn't here to pick a fight. He took a slow, deep breath and held it a moment, then exhaled and turned to face the younger man.

"Yeah," he said noncommittally, not really agreeing with Ienzo's statement so much as simply acknowledging that he'd spoken.

"It was Master Ansem's safe," Ienzo said then, and Lea furrowed his brow.

"Yeah, I had figured that much for myself," he said. "It was Ansem's study, after all." He shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. "I just wondered if there was anything interesting in it," he said. "You know, maybe the secret weapon to defeat his turncoat apprentice, or some other such Deus ex Machina that would solve all our problems."

"He locked his favorite snacks in it. Mostly because Braig kept stealing his roasted cashews if he left them unattended on his desk." Ienzo frowned. "I don't know the combination," he admitted, "so for all I know, there might _still_ be roasted cashews in there."

Okay _that_ part Lea hadn't expected. He was starting to realize that Ansem the Wise was probably nothing like the regal, majestic leader of Radiant Garden everyone had always pictured him as, and never had been.

"Well, then," Lea said, a little unsure how to recover from this revelation, "I guess that won't help us, unless it turns out Xehanort has a life-threatening nut allergy."

Ienzo lingered in the doorway a moment, then moved toward the desk to set his book and papers down. Adjusting the lapels of his labcoat, he turned to look at Lea then, frowning.

"Did you need something?" he asked neutrally, and Lea bit his tongue to keep from swearing again. Ienzo's unflappable nature had been one of the things that had always been the _most_ annoying about him. For more than ten years, Axel had confounded his colleagues by being utterly unreadable, unpredicatble, unknowable, but Zexion had somehow alwways known _just_ how to make him grind his teeth. He had never reacted with alarm or exaggerated surprise whenever Axel had played a prank on him, he had never gotten angry when Axel had eaten the last of the cup noodles or deliberately bought the last orange soda from the vending machines, and he hadn't even seemed fazed or impressed when Axel had managed to cover every surface in the lobby in sticky notes one morning before briefing. It had been _infuriating_ , honestly--or it would have been, had he been able to acknowledge that emotion in the first place at the time. Something in him had relished the look of palpable fear on Zexion's usually stony face as the replica had approached him; Axel had watched, enraptured, as Zexion's final moments were wrung from him like water from an old cloth. Somehow seeing him succumb in his death throes to sheer terror, that most primal of emotions, had been the ultimate jouissance--it was as if he'd been given the chance to literally add insult to injury and reap all the sadistic benefits without even getting his hands dirty.

As he looked at Ienzo now, though, all Lea could feel was sick at the memory of it.

Realizing that he'd been quiet for a little too long and that Ienzo was staring at him from behind the desk, Lea pulled at the back of his neck and cleared his throat.

"Ah, yeah, I just... uh..." He blew a sigh up toward his hairline and averted his eyes for a moment. Ugh, why was this so hard? He'd been an asshole, and he needed to apologize for it. It hadn't been nearly this hard to apologize to _Kairi_ \--he'd done it several times before she had threatened to charge him five munny for every unnecessary repeated 'I'm sorry', and he'd _still_ wound up owing her thirty munny that week. So why couldn't he just say it to Ienzo? 'Sorry I facilitated your gruesome horrible death'. That surely deserved _more_ contrition than 'sorry I kidnapped you and then you got double-kidnapped away from me but ultimately weren't harmed', right? So why couldn't he just _say_ it?

Emotions really sucked sometimes.

"Funny, Axel was always rather articulate," Ienzo noted dryly after a moment of silence, and Lea's expression darkened with annoyance.

"I just wanted to..." He inhaled, held his breath a moment, then exhaled in a whuff. Okay, just _say_ it, dumbass. "I'm _sorry_ , okay?"

There. He'd done it. His voice was low and the words were sort of all smashed together, but he'd apologized.

Ienzo, as usual, seemed rather unfazed. "Sorry?" he echoed, tilting his head a little and sitting down at the desk to shuffle some of his papers around. "For what?"

Lea just stared at him for a moment, like maybe Ienzo had suddenly gone out of focus or something. "The hell do you mean, 'for what'?" he asked, baffled. "Did you crack your head on the safe, too, or something? Or are you screwing with me? You're not really gonna make me spell the whole thing out, are you? Because suddenly I'm not sure I'm _that_ sorry."

Sheesh, you try and do the right thing...

Ienzo gave a long suffering sigh and set his stack of papers aside, giving Lea a stern look.

"If you are referring to what _Axel_ did to _Zexion_ in the basements of Castle Oblivion," he said coolly, "then I'm afraid I can't accept your apology."

Lea's shoulders lifted, like the hackles of an angry raccoon, and he strode over to the desk to plant both hands on it loudly.

"I am _trying_ to be _decent_ , here," he snarled, though he didn't raise his voice.

"And I assure you, I appreciate the effort," Ienzo said, unmoved by Lea's advance, "but you misunderstand."

" _Do_ I." It wasn't really an inquiry. Lea folded his arms and peered at him expectantly, waiting for elaboration.

Ienzo sighed again before fixing Lea with a look that was somehow condescending and sympathetic at the same time--rather the way one might look at a child who had insisted on finding out for themselves why everyone said it was a bad idea to lick the frozen lightpost. Not that Lea was familiar with that look or anything.

"I, Ienzo, cannot accept an apology from you, Lea, for something that Axel did to Zexion," Ienzo said very plainly then, and Lea made a face.

"'Scuse me?"

"Your name _is_ Lea, is it not?"

Lea furrowed his brow, wondering if this was a trick question somehow.

"Yeah..."

"And mine is Ienzo."

"So?"

"Lea, I am no more Zexion than you are Axel," Ienzo said finally, sort of gesturing at the air between them. "Those days are gone, those names are meaningless now, and rightfully so. You can't apologize for something you didn't do, and I can't accept an apology for something that was not done to me."

Lea was still making the face, now accompanied by a lifted index finger, as though he meant to interrupt this train of thought but hadn't yet come up with an interjection.

"Do you understand?" Ienzo asked.

"Is this some sort of weird 'I reject your reality and substitute my own' coping mechanism or something?"

Ienzo bristled almost imperceptibly, but Lea saw it, and somehow it was unsettling more than satisfying. _Was_ Ienzo dissociating just for the sake of moving on? That seemed so... _messy_ , somehow, especially for someone like him.

"No," Ienzo assured him, a little too stiffly, "I'm simply doing what I can to move forward with my life. The things that were done in the name of the Organization, they weren't things that anyone would be proud of, but they happened." He closed a nearby book and slid it to one side, resting his elbows on the desk in its place. "This is simply a case of _fait accompli_. Nothing anyone can do or say _now_ will undo those things."

"Unless you're Xehanort and you have like seventy copies of yourself scattered throughout history," Lea muttered.

Ienzo's sigh was a little grating this time, and Lea felt a _smidge_ better to think that maybe he was actually getting on his nerves enough to warrant that.

"Furthermore, even if I _did_ believe that we are now the same people we were then," Ienzo said, pressing his thumb against the spot between his eyebrows, "it wouldn't entitle you to my forgiveness."

Lea bristled a little. What the hell was his problem? Here he was, trying to mend fences, and Ienzo was going to throw this crap in his face? He was half tempted to just rescind the whole apology at this point-- _screw_ Ienzo and his high horse complex.

"What Axel did to Zexion was atrocious," Ienzo continued, threading his fingers together as Lea's face crinkled more and more with indignation. "No amount of apology will fix that." He paused for a moment longer than was entirely necessary, and Lea made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat. "However," he said finally, "I bear no ill will for things that happened in another life."

Lea's face was still scrunched with ire. This sort of explained why Ienzo hadn't railed him back when they'd first reawakened, but it was also somehow the most unsatisfying acquittal he'd ever received.

"I still think you're an ass," Ienzo added almost dismissively, and turned his attention back to his papers, "but restoration and the preservation of the worlds lies now in what we achieve in the future, not what we regret in the past."

Lea just stared at Ienzo for a long moment, frowning. He guessed everyone had different means of dealing with the past twelve years, and it wasn't his place to find fault with Ienzo's choice, even if he thought it was a stupid one. As much as he was loath to admit it, Ienzo was right about one thing: he _didn't_ have to accept his apology, regardless of his reasons. Lea could think it was unnecessary and spiteful all he liked, but he knew deep down that what he'd done to Zexion had been pretty unforgivable, in the long run. Bearing no ill will was probably the best he could hope for.

That didn't mean he was just going to accept everything Ienzo was spouting off, though.

"You're wrong," he said after a pause, and Ienzo lifted his eyes without lifting his head. "We may have lost our hearts, but we didn't lose who we were. Without emotions to drive us forward, the memories of our pasts were all we had. So if Axel and Zexion were still Lea and Ienzo, then we don't _get_ to just detach from them now that we've got our hearts back." His eyes were steely, though his anger was far more with the whole situation than at Ienzo personally. "If you don't want to own the shit Zexion did at Xehanort's beck and call, that's your prerogative, but if you throw that away, you also throw away everything you _learned_ from it." Lea shook his head and took a step back away from the desk. "You cope however you want, Ienzo," he said, "but I'm not going to pretend I made no mistakes just so I can feel better about myself."

He _had_ made mistakes. They _all_ had. And if he just broke Axel away from himself and cast him aside, then everything Axel had learned in those last few desperate weeks, everything he'd fought for, everything he'd tried to do and to say and to change, it would all have meant nothing. Lea hadn't lied to his best friend, or bloodied his hands, or betrayed the people he cared about, but if he just ignored the fact that _Axel_ had, if he pretended that had somehow happened independently of himself, then what good had the past twelve years been, anyway? If he took nothing away from the mess Axel had made, then he was no better than the shell of the man who had done those things in the first place.

Ienzo was staring at him now, his eyes a little narrow, as though he was trying to glean some greater meaning from Lea's words. Lea held his gaze, then turned away when Ienzo just sort of hummed to himself in thought and looked back down at his book. Whatever. He'd made his apology, he'd said his piece. Ienzo wasn't his problem anymore, and he wasn't going to let the guilt of what he'd done to him--what _Axel_ had done to _Zexion_ \--weigh him down anymore, regardless of whether or not Ienzo could accept it or not.

"If you're that worried about the future of the worlds," he said coldly, "then maybe you _should_ have a little reverence for the mistakes of the past." He lifted his chin defiantly. "After all, those mistakes are what got us here in the first place."

He strode toward the study door, his hands fisted at his sides and his legs stiff, and when Ienzo called his name, Lea paused, took a breath, and glanced over his shoulder.

"What."

Ienzo lifted his eyebrows, and his mouth didn't shift but Lea was almost positive he was smiling ever so slightly. "Watch your back."

He squinted at him, frowning, and when he could think of no acceptable retort, he just nodded and hurried out of the study, back into the darkness of the hallway. Somehow, the shadows that had seemed so eerie before were now infinitely less uncomfortable than holding Ienzo's gaze any longer. 'Watch your back'? What the hell did that even mean? Was that a _threat_ or was Ienzo genuinely wishing for him to look after himself? Zexion had always enjoyed mind games--illusions, apparitions, _ghosts_ had been his area of expertise, and he had taken great pride in knowing exactly how to get under someone's skin. 'Watch your back'... A sly, veiled portent, or a benign, if vague, expression of encouragement? Somehow both options seemed equally unlikely, and as he ventured further into the darkened hallways, Lea realized with a bitter sort of chuckle that that had probably been the entire point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> man, that scene in 3D has bothered me for like 84 years. like _how_ was Ienzo not even the slightest bit upset at Lea? it wasn't even a lost in translation sort of thing, Ienzo just didn't fuckin' care, and i was so baffled and distraught by that. so of course i had to explain it in fic. because that is how i roll.
> 
> special thanks to my friend Puli for weighing in on Ienzo's voice for me! ♥


	32. Something to Lose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lea lays his cards on the table.

Kairi had decided that just waiting for Lea was too boring, and had insisted on passing the time by trying to read Riku's palm. The sun had nearly vanished behind the horizon, but there were several large sconces on the outside of the castle that illuminated the little square where they sat at the top of the stairs. Kairi assured him it was more than enough light for these purposes.

"Do you even know how to do this?" he asked as she took his left hand in both of hers and scrutinized it fiercely.

"I read a book," she assured him, reaching for his other hand and staring just as hard at that palm before going back to the left hand and then looking at him. "Okay, so the left hand is supposed to say what traits you're born with, and the right is what you've accumulated throughout your life," she said, looking at him perhaps a little _too_ seriously. "Which do you want me to tell you?"

Riku shrugged, completely baffled by the entire idea.

"Surprise me?" he suggested, and Kairi pursed her lips, taking a moment to consider and then reaching for his left hand again.

"You already know what you've learned up to this point," she said, giving a nod, "but it's what's inside you, what's always been there, that you can never seem to see for yourself. So maybe you'll believe me if I tell you what's right there on your skin."

Riku chuckled softly, shaking his head a little.

"Okay, okay, go for it," he said. He didn't really believe in this sort of thing, but Kairi seemed rather determined. She had always taken these things a little more seriously than he thought they warranted: astrology, palm reading, other such inexact sciences. It was rather charming, something he considered cutely quirky about her, but he'd never put much stock in things he couldn't quantify with numbers. How in all the worlds could stars determine someone's personality? How could someone's accomplishments be read in the lines of their hands?

"All right, so," Kairi said, tucking a lock of hair behind one ear and running her fingertips across Riku's palm. He bit the corners of his mouth to keep from smiling a little too broadly--it tickled, a bit. Kairi's hands were very soft and gentle, despite how hard he knew she could swing her Keyblade, and that was kind of fascinating. "So this line here, this is your love line," she said, sliding her fingertip down the topmost line across his palm. "Yours is short, but curved, it starts just before your ring finger," she said, and Riku snorted.

"Short love line, huh?" he said dryly. "Sounds about right."

Kairi looked at him reproachfully. "If you'd let me finish," she said, "I'd have told you that has nothing to do with the amount of love you have to give, or how much you deserve, silly." She tapped his skin lightly. "A short, curved love line means you fall in love easily." She gave him a knowing look--a little _too_ knowing for Riku's comfort. "Think that's accurate?"

He felt his cheeks heat up, and was suddenly very glad it was nearly dark and she likely couldn't tell.

"All right, okay, next line," he said, pursing his lips and avoiding her gaze.

Kairi giggled softly, then traced the next line down on his palm.

"This one's the head line," she said, and Riku arched an eyebrow.

"I thought that was something in a newspaper," he said.

"That's a _headline_ and you know it," Kairi laughed, shaking her head and pushing his shoulder. "Quit making fun of me."

"I-I'm not!" he insisted. The last thing he'd ever want to do was _insult_ her. "Okay, okay, head line, what's mine say?"

"The line is long and deep," she said, tracing it with her fingertip again and looking up at him, "which indicates you're very clear-headed and focused."

"Uh huh."

"And it's separated from your life line," she went on, smiling, "which means you have a lust for life and a lot of enthusiasm."

Riku considered this for a moment, then sort of nodded. He guessed that was accurate. His zeal for life had certainly _waned_ for a while--there had been points during his trials in overcoming Xehanort that he had wondered if it was really worth it, if it wouldn't have been better to just die with Xehanort's Darkness within him, rather than risk letting it get out of control again, but if this was supposed to represent the fundamentals he'd been born with, he supposed so far it was accurate.

Though it might have just been Kairi making it up as she went. He really had no clue.

"This one is the life line," she went on then, bringing Riku back into the moment, and he grinned.

"I'd like to use one of my lifelines," he quipped, quoting that stupid game show his mother enjoyed, and Kairi swatted at him.

"Here, see how it runs close to the meaty part of your thumb?" she asked, and he nodded, again trying not to smile as her touch tickled gently. "That means... you're tired a lot."

Riku snorted with laughter.

"But," Kairi went on, "there's more. Look, it runs very straight, and the whole thing goes all the way down to the edge of your palm."

"Means I'm gonna live to be three-hundred, right?" he asked, and she just gave him A Look.

"It means you live cautiously, especially when it comes to relationships," she said, and Riku looked a little hangdog.

"Are you sure you're not just making excuses to scold me about stuff you know I need to work on?" he asked, and she squeezed his hand.

"I'm just telling you what your hand is telling me," she said, her gaze lidded, and pressed her fingertip into the heel of his palm. "Look here," she said, "see how the line is broken in the middle?"

"Oh, so I only live to a hundred and fifty," he said, and Kairi just sighed.

"That indicates a drastic lifestyle change at a crucial point in your life."

"Oh, come on, now I _know_ you're just saying stuff," he laughed. "No way my hands could know that from the day I was born."

"No?" she asked, holding up her own hand. "Look at mine," she said, gesturing at the vertical line that bisected her palm diagonally. "This is the fate line. See how mine is broken? There's a gap, here in the middle. Above the gap, it curves one way, and below, it curves the other."

Riku squinted, then nodded, looking at her.

"That means my life will go through many significant changes, all due to dire events outside my control," she said. She lifted her eyebrows. "Lea's fate line is broken in the same way. Don't you think that's pretty uncanny?"

He pressed his lips together, frowning. She had a point: she'd been spirited away from her home very young, saved from its fall to Darkness, had started over on the Destiny Islands as the affluent daughter of a city official, and had discovered she was truly a Princess of Heart and one of the Seven Lights that would defeat the Darkness for good. And Lea... Lea had essentially lost his life, been reborn as a Nobody, and then lost his life _again_ to be restored as a whole person. If that wasn't exactly the definition of upheaval on account of 'dire events outside of one's control' then he wasn't sure what was, and that they _all_ had the same lines in their hands... Maybe there was a little more to this than he'd been giving credit.

"Okay, all right, so what's my fate line say, then?"

"Yours joins your life line here at the heel of your hand," she said with a smile. "That means you're self-made and have great aspirations from early in life."

Riku paused for a long moment, then made a soft 'huh' sound. Well, he still wasn't sure he really believed in this stuff, even if sometimes it seemed like maybe it was right.

"Oh, gosh, I hope I'm not _interrupting_ anything."

Riku jumped, startled when a voice broke their companionable quiet, but when the tone and words registered, his guard lowered, though his hackles didn't.

" _No_ , Lea, you're not _interrupting_ anything," he grumbled, pulling his hand from Kairi's and smearing it down his face in an attempt to disguise the fact that he was probably turning red again.

Lea arched one eyebrow. "You sure?" he asked, grinning. "Looks to me like you two were holding hands and having a moment."

"K-Kairi was _reading my palm_ , for Light's sake," Riku spluttered, scrabbling to his feet, and Kairi hid laughter behind one hand.

"Oh, yeah?" Lea laughed softly and stepped closer, reaching out and taking Riku's wrist, twisting it carefully so his palm was raised. "Hmmm," Lea said, rubbing his chin. "Yes, yes, these are definitely earth hands."

Riku recoiled sharply, though not out of alarm or distaste. Lea's hands were much rougher than Kairi's, callused and far bonier, but warm and surprisingly gentle in that moment, and suddenly his heart was pounding against the cage of his ribs like it was trying desperately to escape.

"E... earth hands?" he echoed, his voice vexingly breathless. "What the heck does that mean?"

Lea held up one of his hands, flexing his fingers backward slightly to show off how long they were.

"See, I've got air hands," he said, smiling like he was very pleased with himself. 

"And here I thought you had _fire_ hands," Riku replied, a seed of incredulity in his tone.

"You'd think," Lea said, and shook his head, waggling his fingers, "but you'd be wrong. Kairi's the one with the fire hands. My fingers are longer than my palms, and I have low-set thumbs. Air hands. This indicates I'm sociable and witty, and I tend to think outside the box." He glanced past Riku to look at Kairi. "Right?"

Kairi laughed brightly and got to her feet. She dusted off her backside and gave Lea a nod.

"You memorized it perfectly," she said, and then gestured at Riku. "So what do his earth hands mean?"

Riku was starting to feel like he was the main attraction of some bizarre sideshow or something. He folded his arms defensively over his chest, tucking his hands against his ribs to hide them.

"Your hands are broad and the length of your fingers is about the same as the length of your palms," Lea said, and then thought for a moment. "Earth means..." He snapped his fingers. "Ah! Stubborn, practical, and good at working with your hands."

"This is all very well and good," Riku said stiffly, shaking his head, "but I think we've got much more important things to worry about right now than what element my hands take after, don't you? Like getting back home so we can rest up for another mission? Or working on your training so maybe you'll stop automatically trying to _throw_ your Keyblade like it's a chakram? Or, I dunno, maybe going over what we know about Xehanort's movements, and trying to come up with a game plan for confronting him?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize this was a Factotums Anonymous meeting," Lea said, putting his hands on his hips.

"I don't know what a fact totem is," Riku said tersely, scowling. "I'm being serious here."

Lea gave a low whistle. "Something something about all work and no play and dull boys."

"Come on, you two," Kairi said then, stepping up alongside Riku and placing a hand against his arm, "Lea, stop teasing him, you know how sensitive he is. And Riku, you know if you keep reacting when he gives you a hard time it's just going to egg him on."

Riku exhaled audibly, deflating a little where he stood. Her touch managed to somehow smooth his ruffled feathers even as it made his heart rate spike again, and he was really starting to wonder if there was something wrong with him. First there was the whole surge of jealousy when Kairi had kissed Lea on the cheek, and now here he was, blushing and blustering like an idiot because they were teasing him. Ugh, this was _exactly_ why he'd always done his best to keep his feelings for Kairi completely platonic, and completely _to himself_. He knew that Lea _knew_ about those feelings, thanks to the little fiasco in the Land of Dragons, but now it was beginning to seem as though those feelings... were evolving. He couldn't _possibly_ like Lea _also_ , though, that was completely absurd! He had always been able to keep his emotions in check, always been _good_ at it--or so he'd thought, at least... Why was everything falling apart now? Now, when it was more important than ever that he not let his personal feelings get in the way of completing their missions?

He took a deep breath and exhaled again, then looked up at Lea.

"Did you finish your errand?" he asked, trying to regain his poise, and Lea made a face he couldn't quite decipher.

"As finished as it's gonna get," Lea said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

"At least you still have all of your face, right?" Kairi asked, and Lea laughed softly.

"You know, I thought about coming back out here with my hands over my face, pretending it got half burnt off after all," he said, and then wagged a finger at Riku, "but I figured if I did that, he'd maim me with his Keyblade for scaring him."

Riku blew a raspberry. "What makes you think I'd be scared?" he asked. "You seem to think you can get out of anything, just because you're handsome and charming. Maybe a little face mutilation would humble you a bit. Wipe that sly smile off your face for five minutes."

Lea made a sharp keening noise and splayed a hand over his heart. "Cut me to the quick, Riku," he said with feigned injury. "Do you really think I'm so vain?"

"I _know_ you're so vain," Riku snickered, and Lea just looked at him coyly.

"But you _do_ think I'm handsome and charming," he accused, a hand on his chin and a very dashing look on his face, and Riku felt his cheeks burn too hot all over again. He made a frustrated noise and turned away sharply.

"L-look, if we're done here, I think it's high time we headed home," he said too quickly, like the words were all fighting to get out of his mouth at the same time.

"Actually," Lea piped up, and Riku gave an exasperated sigh. Why did Lea always seem to have an excuse?

"What is it now?" Riku asked long sufferingly, and Lea hesitated, then fidgeted with his hands.

"I was wondering if we could make one more stop," he said, and there was that indecipherable look on his face again, which left Riku wondering just what exactly had happened once he and Kairi had left the castle. "It's not too far, and it won't take long. There's just something I... wanna show you guys."

Riku studied Lea's face a moment, frowning. The older man looked uncomfortable, like he was caught somewhere between guilt and straight up apprehension. It made Riku think of someone who was considering stealing something, but was wrangling with compunction about it, and it was a very odd sort of expression to see on Lea's face, of all people. Something about the urgency in the expression was compelling, though, and Riku couldn't deny a little curiosity, so he gave a nod, turning back to face him.

"All right," he said, and then pointed at him. "So long as it doesn't take too long. It's already dark."

He just hoped this wasn't some stupid prank or something. Lea had been acting strangely since they'd arrived here, and while in context it was understandable he'd be uneasy back here in this world full of old ghosts, Lea didn't seem to be handling it in the healthiest way. (Not that Riku expected that the Organization had been especially good at fostering healthy coping mechanisms for anything.) The fact of the matter was that he _did_ trust Lea, even if he didn't always have faith he wouldn't regret that later.

They made their way down the hill and back toward the main part of town, then turned off to head northwest of the castle. The architecture looked a bit newer here--not in the restored sense, but inasmuch as these were tall, slender townhomes rather than the short, squat single-level residences in most of the other areas. 

"Oh, Lea, I almost forgot," Kairi piped up after a while of walking in silence, and Lea glanced at her, eyebrows lifted as she dug into the pocket of her hoodie. "Here," she said, handing him a small device. "Cid Highwind made them, they're communication devices. He asked if we would test them out to see how well they work on other worlds. I programmed mine and Riku's numbers into that one for you. Sora's, too, we got one for him also."

"Huh, you don't say?" Lea turned the Cidphone in his hand and then flipped open the little keyboard. "That sonovagun is still inventing crazy stuff, is he?"

"You know him?" Riku asked, curious, and Lea shrugged.

"Knew," he corrected, "in passing. It's not a very big world. Everybody who lived here knew Cid, more or less. When something around town was broken, either Cid was the one who broke it, or he was the one you called to fix it." He chuckled and shook his head, sliding the phone into his jeans pocket. "Phones that work on other worlds, though, seriously?" He whistled. "Hope we don't get charged roaming fees."

Kairi laughed. "He said they're made with the Gummi ship technology," she said, "so I think they'll work the same no matter where you are, since the ships can go pretty much anywhere, can't they?"

"Think so," Lea said, and then glanced at Riku. "Can't they?"

Riku shrugged one shoulder, slipping his hands into his pockets. "Dunno," he admitted. "Sora's the one who became a space pilot. I used the Corridors to get from world to world, back when they worked for me; I never set foot on the Gummi ship."

"I still don't understand how a ship can run on _smiles_ ," Kairi said, shaking her head. "Was Sora being serious when he said that, or was he pulling my leg?"

"Beats me," Riku admitted, chuckling. "I'm pretty sure a machine can't actually run on smiles, though, I mean... how do you fill up a tank with smiles? That makes no sense."

" _Sora_ doesn't always make sense," Lea pointed out with a snicker, "and, for that matter, neither does Cid, so..." He shrugged. "I wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility, to be honest." He shook his head then. "Couldn't _pay_ me to get on that thing, though, especially not with Sora at the helm."

"Oh, come on," Riku chided, "I'm sure Sora's a... passable pilot, at least."

"Says the guy who refused to let him steer a _raft_ ," Kairi snorted, nudging Riku with her elbow.

"Better than letting the duck drive, says I," Lea said dryly.

"Do you think Donald could even reach the pedals?" Kairi wondered aloud, giggling.

"Does a Gummi ship even _have_ pedals?" Riku added.

There was a moment of quiet in which they all pondered the logistics of whether or not a Gummi ship was even a feasible creation, let alone a spaceworthy mode of transportation, and then Lea paused in his steps and lifted his head to look up at a long row of townhouses.

"Ah... anyway," he said, shifting his weight again, "we're here."

Riku looked up and scanned the row of houses, a bit puzzled. There were streetlamps positioned in front of each home, gently lighting the small front yards, and most of the houses' windows were illuminated from within, shining soft and yellow. The occasional shadow passed in front of the windows, diffused through curtains or blinds. A little puzzled, Riku turned to Lea with a frown.

"Where's 'here'?" he asked cautiously, and Lea took a deep breath, meeting his eye and then glancing at Kairi before turning his gaze to the row of houses.

"See that house down there? Second from the end, the blue one," he said, pointing. Riku glanced at Kairi, then looked where Lea pointed. The house was grey-blue, with white shutters and a rather impressive climbing vine that snaked its way up one side of the face. Lea let out a sigh, like he was suddenly very tired, and said, "That's the house I grew up in."

Riku startled, though somewhere in the back of his head that was sort of what he was expecting Lea to say. Why else would he have brought them to a row of homes, if not to show them a specific one of significance? He wasn't sure why exactly it was so startling, either way--Lea knew where _he_ lived, after all. Lea had always been so secretive about his origins, though, such that he and Kairi hadn't even known this was his home world until earlier that same day, and so somehow the idea of his sharing _this_ seemed almost disproportionately intimate.

Kairi gasped aloud at the announcement, and covered her mouth.

"Wait, seriously?" she asked, shaking her head. "Lea, are you messing with us?"

Lea looked baffled. "No?" he ventured, like he suddenly wasn't entirely sure.

Kairi snapped one arm out, gesturing at the house. "Lea, the _lights_ are on," she said incredulously.

Lea blinked at her. "Probably because it's nighttime," he said, and she made an exasperated noise.

"That mean's that people are _home_ ," she said, reaching for his arm. "Your _family_ is home--don't you want to go see them?"

Lea balked, leaning back as Kairi took his wrist and tried to tug him forward, toward the houses. There was that look on Lea's face again, that expression somewhere amid guilt, shame, and fear, and Riku just couldn't figure out what it meant. He was still getting to know Lea beyond a superficial level, but from what he'd learned so far, he had a hard time believing Lea was afraid of much of anything (save losing his heart again).

"K-Kairi, wait." Lea dug his heels in, arresting Kairi's momentum, and she frowned back at him with a confused and somehow sad look on her face. He shook his head, and she released his arm, tilting her head and exchanging a worried glance with Riku before they both looked at him again. "I can't," he said.

Riku lifted one eyebrow. "What d'you mean you 'can't'?" he asked, more puzzled than accusatory. "What's stopping you?"

Lea avoided their eyes for a long moment, just staring at the ground in front of him, and then he looked back up toward the houses.

"The house next to it," he said finally, and Riku tilted his head.

"What about it?" he asked.

"That's what's stopping me."

Now Riku was _really_ confused. How could a _house_ be stopping him?

"How come?" Kairi asked after a beat of silence, and Lea blew out a gusty sigh.

"Because," he said, "that's... the house _Isa_ grew up in."

Just from the way the name fell from Lea's lips Riku knew instantly who Isa was, without even having to wait for his brain to supply the anagram. He had wondered a few times just what sort of relationship Axel had had with the blue-haired man he had confronted in the Round Room, wondered just what Saïx had been to him during those years they spent together in the Organization, but he had never imagined that maybe that relationship had started long _before_ the Organization. Somehow the thought of Lea and Isa having been close as children and losing their hearts _together_ had simply been too tragic a possibility to consider.

Kairi apparently reached the same conclusion a moment after Riku did, because she inhaled audibly and covered her mouth with one hand, shaking her head a little, as though she could convince him to take it back.

"Oh, Lea..." she breathed, looking like she was thinking about trying to take his hand but then reconsidering.

Lea didn't look at them, his eyes still focused on the house at the end of the row. "Our moms were friends," he said, the words carefully enunciated, like he had to think about each one carefully before he spoke, "so of course they wanted _us_ to be friends. Actually we kind of hated each other at first. I thought he was a stick in the mud, and he thought I was a complete idiot." He laughed, almost bitterly. "I mean, we were right, but that stopped mattering after a while."

There was another pause, during which neither Riku nor Kairi spoke, and finally Lea turned to look at them. His expression wasn't tinctured with that strange look of fear anymore, and instead he seemed more befuddled than anything else, as though he wasn't sure how to proceed now with this particular can of beans spilled everywhere.

"Isa was my best friend," he said finally, "for _years_ , long before the Organization was ever in the picture... and when we lost our hearts, it was like it suddenly wasn't important anymore." He shook his head, then looked back at the house. "He was always the one getting me out of trouble," he said quietly, "and then... the one time he really needed some bailing out, I just looked the other way." Another bitter sort of chuckle, and he folded his arms over his chest, like he'd suddenly caught a chill. "I knew something wasn't right," he said. "I mean, we didn't have feelings anymore, but I knew something wasn't right, you know? And I just let it happen. I just let Xehanort make a puppet out of my best friend."

"Lea, I'm sure it wasn't that simple--"

"It was." He cut Kairi off, but not sharply. His words were just matter of fact, which was somehow worse than angry. "I knew I should have done something, but I didn't, because I kept telling myself since we couldn't feel anything, he couldn't be acting strangely, and I couldn't be worried about it. Eventually, I started to _resent_ him, even, despite the fact that I technically couldn't feel that, either. He stopped being my friend, he became someone cold and mean and demanding, and instead of trying to help him, I just pushed him away, because I didn't like what he'd become." He sighed and lowered his eyes. "How could I go home?" he asked softly. "How could I face my family, now, after all this time, knowing I helped the people who destroyed this world, but didn't help my oldest friend when he needed me?" He shook his head and rubbed at his brow, his voice low and almost stony. "How could I face Isa's parents? How could I look them in the eye, having come home without their son? Having _abandoned_ him?"

Riku didn't quite know what to say to this. On some level, he could relate: he'd resented Sora for having new friends, back when Maleficent had still had her talons in his heart--but somehow it didn't feel quite the same. He and Sora had made up. Sora _hadn't_ lost himself, _hadn't_ fallen prey to Xehanort, in part _because_ of Lea, for that matter--

Wait. This was exactly the sort of thing Lea was always scolding _him_ for. Well, it was about time for some turnabout.

"Lea, even if you weren't able to help Isa back then, you've obviously changed since that time," he said, and Lea looked at him like he wasn't quite sure he believed him. "You can't lay all the blame solely on yourself," he said, and Lea's expression shifted ever so slightly toward incredulity. Riku could practically _hear_ him challenge, ' _You_ do'. "Okay, I know, I'm a kettle and you're a pot, but that isn't the point," he said, shaking his head. "Beat yourself up for what you _didn't_ do all you like, but don't forget about what you _did_ do. Without your help, Sora probably never would have made it to the World that Never Was."

Lea snorted. "And neither would Kairi, for that matter!" he said with mock enthusiasm. "Way to go, me!"

"And then you literally saved him from becoming one of Xehanort's vessels," Riku said, a little frustrated.

"Fifty percent is still a failing grade," Lea pointed out fiercely.

"Lea, don't be like that," Kairi said, frowning. "This world is really hard for you to handle, we know, but you don't have to flog yourself this way." She put her hands on her hips and gave him a downright withering look. "Yeah, I hated you for kidnapping me," she admitted, "for like... half a day. I was angry for a lot longer, and even when I wasn't angry anymore, I still didn't trust you. But you apologized, and you meant it. You made the effort to be _better_ than that, and look at us now," she said. "You've worked really hard to change who you are, Lea. Doesn't that count for anything?"

"Not to Isa," he said, shaking his head. "I can't go home without him, I _won't_. We died here in this world, together, when the Darkness took it, and that's how we'll go home: _together_." He nodded firmly, like he was reassuring himself of just that. "I may not be able to help Roxas and Naminé," he said, and the words sounded as though they drew blood with each syllable. "No matter how much I _want_ to, I don't know _how_ to fix it so they can live their lives separate from you and Sora, Kairi, but... I can fix what happened to Isa." He gestured to the row of houses again. "And I can't go home until I _do_."

Riku squinted at him. There was more at work here than Lea's guilty conscience, he was sure of it. It just didn't really make any sense for Lea to bring them here and show them these houses if all he wanted to do was explain his history with Saïx. He could have told them this story just as easily on the train heading home, without the added pain of seeing his family's home, knowing he couldn't let himself get any closer to it.

"So we'll help you," Riku said. "You know that already, Lea--we _told_ you we would. We want to get Roxas and Naminé back, too, and even if Saïx wronged us, that doesn't mean _Isa_ doesn't deserve saving." He reached out haltingly, his hand a loose fist, and bumped his knuckles against Lea's arm in something like an attempt to anchor his attention without being too overtly sentimental about it. "Lea," he said, and shook his head, "you didn't bring us here to tell us about Isa."

Lea stared at him for a bit longer than was entirely comfortable--Riku avoided eye contact often, even around his friends, but there was something so lost in Lea's stormy green eyes in that moment that he couldn't bring himself to look away. Finally, Lea tore his gaze from Riku's, closing his eyes and turning his head.

"What Even said," he mumbled, "back at the castle... it isn't true."

"What isn't true?" Kairi asked, stepping closer and looking at Riku appraisingly. He felt a flicker of pride at that--maybe he wasn't quite so perceptive as she was, but he was trying.

"Well, okay, some of it was true," Lea admitted, his head still turned away from them. "I... killed him." He looked at them sternly, the expression strikingly different from the guilty look from before. "I killed him on his knees while he begged me not to, and... and I'm not sorry about it, either."

"You... really hate him, don't you?" Kairi asked, and Lea made a sibilant noise of disgust. Kairi pressed her lips together. "He scared me," she said, and Lea furrowed his brow at her. She fidgeted with her hands. "When he was shouting, especially," she explained, "I was... terrified. I could hardly even move. I just wanted to melt into my chair and disappear until he left." She looked up at him for a second and then down at her fingers. "I think he's not a good person."

"You're right about that," Lea said, his words still dripping with acid. "I'm honestly not surprised he scared you so much. Naminé saw firsthand what a monster Vexen could be. What he did to his experiments was inhuman." He huffed softly, resentfully. "I guess since we _weren't_ human, he didn't think it mattered how he treated the replicas."

There was a pause then, and Riku frowned when a look of puzzlement crossed Lea's face. He touched his brow, a gesture Riku had seen him make once or twice before, always with that same confused expression, but as soon as the look was there it was gone again, and Lea set his jaw.

"So... when he called me a murderer, that... wasn't untrue," he said a little sullenly.

"Then... what wasn't true?" Riku prompted when Lea didn't expound right away. He was clearly having trouble articulating at the moment, which was a rarity, but visiting Radiant Garden had put an obvious and unmistakable strain on Lea over the course of the day. Opening up and trusting people with those cards held close to the vest was a difficult challenge Riku could absolutely relate to, and Lea had been little if not encouraging when he had struggled with it himself.

"When he said I would turn on you," Lea said after visible hesitation, clenching and unclenching his hands. "When he said I would betray you as soon as it benefited me. He was wrong."

"We know," Kairi said without missing a beat. "Don't you think we know?"

Lea shook his head sharply. "That isn't enough," he said, frustrated. "Anybody can _say_ they trust someone, but the fact of the matter is I _am_ a traitor. I _did_ betray the Organization. I betrayed Isa, I betrayed _Roxas_ , I'm a _traitor_ , and I'm owning that."

Riku didn't bother to posit that turning the other cheek or making a mistake in thinking you knew better than someone else didn't really count as _betraying_ them. That wasn't the point.

"But?" he prompted, and Lea flung his arm out, gesturing toward the row of houses.

"I'm _giving_ you this," he said sharply, and Riku looked at the houses, then looked back at Lea.

"I don't understand," he said, shaking his head.

Lea lowered his head, his shoulders hunched and his hands fisted, his eyes closed and his lips pulled back in a snarl. A few short months ago, Riku would have taken this as an extremely aggressive posture and probably would have backed away, but in having gotten to know Lea better, he had come to trust Lea not to hurt him, not to strike him, no matter how angry or exasperated he might have seemed. Riku leaned forward a little, trying to catch Lea's eye.

"Lea?"

"When I betrayed the Organization, it was because I had nothing to lose," he said, eyes still closed. "I turned on them because they'd taken everything from me--my home, my best friends, _everything_. There was nothing more they could do to hurt me, except hunt me down and destroy me, and if I'd just played the good soldier I would have wound up dead or a vessel anyway." He opened his eyes then and fixed Riku with a harsh stare. "I betrayed them because I had nothing left that I cared about--nothing left I _could_ care about--that they could hold over my head. _Nothing_ is more dangerous than someone who has nothing left to lose."

The words sank in slowly, and out of the corner of his eye, Riku saw Kairi turn and look at the houses once more before she turned and took a step closer to Lea. She reached out and closed her hands around his wrist, but didn't pull, just letting her fingers form a gentle cage where they rested.

"So I'm _giving_ you this," Lea said finally, his gaze stern and his shoulders squared, "because I want you to know that I still have something to lose. I'm not that loose cannon anymore, okay?"

The steely look faltered, and he took a halting breath before he shook his head.

"I know where I stand now," he went on, and Riku slowly let himself smile as Lea continued. "I have people counting on me--Roxas, Naminé, Isa... I mean, bein' a good guy is hard work and all, but I'm not..." The smile broadened, and Lea suddenly looked awkward. "Er... l-look, I'm just..." He huffed. "Even's an asshole, don't listen to him, I'm on your side now and I'm _staying_ there, okay?"

Riku tried, he really did, but he just couldn't help himself: he laughed. Lea looked comically indignant about this, and Riku shook his head, swatting at Lea's arm.

"Lea, you're an idiot," he said, and the indignant look intensified. Riku beamed up at him. "You didn't have to make this dramatic, heartfelt gesture just to prove you're our ally now," he said. "We _know_ , okay?"

"You've got us, too, you know? To lose." Kairi was smiling, too, and despite the dim light from the streetlamps across the road, Riku could tell that Lea's whole face was turning red. "Once you save Isa," she said, "I hope you'll introduce us to your family."

Lea's indignation instantly turned to awkward discomfort.

"I... ugh." He scrubbed at his face with both hands. "I can already hear my brother lecturing me."

"Your brother?" Riku turned to Kairi with a start when they both exclaimed in tandem, and then he looked back at Lea. "You have a brother?" he asked, utterly surprised.

"Y-yeah?" Lea said, looking apprehensive. "He's like six years younger than me. Though... I dunno, if he didn't age while the world was consumed, he'd be... _eesh_ , what, younger than _both_ of you? _That's_ weird, I hope that isn't a thing." He rubbed at his crown with the heel of one hand.

"You're an _older_ brother?" Riku was flabbergasted, and Lea looked insulted.

"What's with the shock shock horror horror response?" he asked, folding his arms defensively. "I'll have you know I was an _exemplary_ big brother! I taught him how to ride a bike and how to catch snakes and even how to throw a right hook when the bigger kid in his grade was picking on him, thanks very much."

Riku stopped short and held both hands up, sort of waving them helplessly.

"Ah... no, I didn't..." He sighed and shook his head. "You're just... not like _my_ big brother at all."

"That's a compliment," Kairi piped up when Lea looked indignant again.

Lea looked dubious for a moment, then took a deep breath and let it out in a whuff, his shoulders sagging in something like relief.

"Well, now that... now that that's over with," he said, clearing his throat awkwardly, "I guess... we should head back, yah?"

Riku nodded, and Kairi reached out again, but took Lea's hand this time, instead of his wrist. The older man stiffened a little, but didn't recoil.

"Come on, it's getting late, and we never had dinner," Riku said.

"We had cookies," Lea pointed out, wagging a finger at him.

"Cookies aren't dinner, Lea," Kairi pointed out, looking appalled.

"On what world?" he challenged.

"All of them?"

"You're making that up."

"Oh my God, Lea."

Riku laughed softly as they continued debating the merits of sweets as meals, lifting a hand to rub absently at the front of his vest. There was a strange, full feeling in his heart in that moment, a feeling that was only distantly familiar, reminding him of a simpler time years ago, when all that had really mattered to him were two special people, and home was wherever he was with them. Sora was still one of those people, certainly, but somewhere along the way, Lea had managed to sidle his way into that circle, and however he'd done it, he'd taken a very different route. Riku really wasn't sure how he felt about having feelings for people in the first place, let alone _two_ people... never mind that one of those people was a _man_... but that was a problem for another time. He couldn't let those feelings get in the way of what laid ahead for them, anyway, so it was a non-issue in the first place. 

"Riku, weigh in, here," Lea said, nudging him in the arm. "Come on, sweets _totally_ count as dinner. Isn't there like... meat that you cook with chocolate on some world? I'm _sure_ I've heard of that."

"Riku, he's delusional, tell him," Kairi said, though she was still holding Lea's hand, and Lea didn't even seem to notice anymore.

"Actually there _is_ ," he said, and Kairi looked utterly betrayed. "It's called _mole_ , I read about it in an old cookbook my mom is too busy to ever make anything from." He gave Lea a serious look. "It really isn't sweet, though."

"Whaaat?" Lea shook his head adamantly. "Preposterous--chocolate is sweet. Meat cooked with chocolate, confirmed, therefore sweets are totally a legitimate dinner."

"Lea, he _just_ said it wasn't sweet--"

"La la la la, I can't hear you~"

Riku laughed again, shaking his head as the bickering continued. It was ridiculous, but somehow this had become his life. As strange as it might have been for him to realize that less than two years ago he'd wondered if he would ever really find happiness or satisfaction with his life again, it was enough, he thought, to _have_ these people who made his heart feel so full, even if nothing more ever came of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello lovely readers. thank you so much for joining me in this fic so far. my time is seriously at a premium right now, so if you'd like to help me make more updates more often, please go [here](http://kawree.dreamwidth.org/447069.html) for more information on how you can!


	33. Cultureshock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which In which Kairi learns that sneaking up on an ex-assassin is a bad idea, and Lea is given a history lesson.

Lea liked Riku's house. He liked Riku's house _a lot_. It was _enormous_! This spare bedroom they were letting him use was bigger than his parents' room in his house back on Radiant Garden, and it was a _spare_. Like, it had just been sitting around, not being used. For anything. Not even storage. Radiant Garden's economy had just been _different_ , he guessed; there hadn't _been_ huge mansions like the ones on this street. The homes were modest, and people tended to just have the amount of space they needed for the family they had. Lea's room had been adequate, but _this_ room was borderline ridiculous. The bed alone was big enough for like four people, and Lea had relished in just sprawling all 191 of his centimeters out in all directions and not hanging off the edges--a first, for him. When it came to actually sleeping, though, he took up very little space, which was an art he had perfected out of necessity. You couldn't just take impromptu naps if you couldn't scrunch yourself onto the nearest most comfortable horizontal surface, after all. Sometimes that surface happened to be a bench, or a porch swing. He'd even taken a nap on a collapsed ironing board once. 

One hand tucked under the pillow beneath his head and the other curled loosely around his ribs, Lea dozed on his side as the early morning light illuminated the curtains and sent diffused shadows into the corners of the room. Sleep came a lot easier these days; he still had difficulty sleeping through the night, but he could usually sleep for more than three hours at a time now, which was a vast improvement over his sleeping habits a year ago. It was hard to turn off the danger sense, to really get comfortable and relaxed when for so long you couldn't trust anyone around you not to just teleport through the door and stab you in your sleep, and Lea had known for a long time that Riku struggled with the same problem. The dark circles beneath the younger man's eyes were painted with the same strokes as his own (even if he was, perhaps, a bit more expert at hiding them than Riku was), and he felt an extra touch of camaraderie with him for that, even if he was sorry to learn it was something they had in common. Sleep deprivation was a form of torture for good reason, after all, and he supposed the self-inflicted sort was no exception.

Sleeping _better_ , however, didn't mean he slept any heavier. There was an odd scraping noise that jarred him just enough awake to be puzzled by it, and he lifted his head, plucking at the mask covering his eyes. When nothing more met his ears and he saw nothing out of place in the room, though, he just snapped the mask down again nestled his head back into the pillow. It was definitely way too early to be awake.

He wasn't sure how much time passed after that, but at some point, he thought he heard the bedroom door squeak. Riku had offered to oil the hinges when he discovered that they made noise, but Lea had adamantly assured him that it was fine, that he actually preferred it that way. No one here on the Destiny Islands could utilize the Corridors of Darkness (at least so far as he knew), so there was no way anyone could sneak up on him that way. And with a squeaky door, no one could sneak into his bedroom that way, either. He had expected Riku to have a laugh at his expense, but it seemed he had understood the logic, as paranoid as it might have seemed. Lying completely still and keeping his breathing slow and steady, Lea tensed every muscle in his body, waiting.

There was another quiet squeak as the door swung open a bit further, and he was certain he definitely heard soft footsteps this time. Someone was in his bedroom.

Logically, Lea should have known that even if someone _did_ enter his room unannounced, chances were they meant him no ill will. Logically, Lea should have known that anyone who _was_ entering his room unannounced was probably a member of Riku's family or one of the cleaning ladies who came once a week or something, and there was no reason to be concerned. Unfortunately, logic was not a strong point for a half-asleep man who had spent nearly half his life surrounded by people who would have killed him without remorse. So when the soft footsteps drew nearer and the sound of someone's breathing moved to the side of the bed, the last thing on Lea's mind was the idea that _logically_ there was nothing to be afraid of.

The side of the bed dipped, and that was the cue Lea had been waiting for. Striking too early would give his assailant the advantage, after all--even though his chakrams could easily serve as ranged weapons, they had a lot more power when he just used them point blank. He bolted upright, tearing the mask from his face with one hand and drawing one of his weapons with the other, thrusting it forward with a cry--

" _Aah--!?_ "

\--and instantly dismissing the weapon when Kairi let out a sharp bleat of alarm and threw herself backward, tripping over her own feet and pitching to the floor.

Kairi? It was _Kairi_? His whole body felt cold, ice pulsing to every extremity with each beat of his heart at the realization of what had nearly just happened. Light, he could have _killed_ her, what the hell had he been _thinking_? All the fear for himself was instantly replaced with shame, worry, and he threw back the blankets to leap from the bed and drop to one knee beside her. 

"Kairi--jeez, are you okay? I almost--" He couldn't even bring himself to say it--he could have really hurt her, or worse! "Light, I'm so sorry... I thought..."

How was he even supposed to explain this?

Kairi hadn't said a word; she was just staring at him, wide-eyed, and the look of shock and fear on her face was so stark that Lea felt sick to his stomach. He had _never_ seen her look so frightened before: not when he'd kidnapped her in Twilight Town, not even when Saïx had attacked them and taken her away. He lifted one hand as if to touch her face, but recoiled quickly, lowering his eyes. He had no right to touch her after what had just happened.

"I'm sorry," he said again, unable to look at her. Later he would muse on how funny it was that for so long, it had been so impossible for him to utter anything even resembling an apology, and here he had come to a point where contrition just tumbled out of his mouth without second thought. "I just... I thought..." He pressed his lips together and scowled, then lifted his head. "You... can't just sneak up on somebody who spent twelve years living with a bunch of people who wanted to kill him," he said, though it sounded less like he was scolding her and more like he was condemning himself.

How could he have been so stupid? He hadn't taken any measures to try and find out who had been in the room, he had just _assumed_ they were here to kill him. How did that even make any sense? Everyone had their hangups, everyone had things that made them act irrationally, but when those things endangered the lives of the people you cared about, it stopped being acceptable, and Lea was sure he had never in his life felt so chastened.

There was a long pause, and then Kairi shifted where she sat, tucking her knees beneath her and leaning forward. For half an instant, Lea inexplicably expected her to hit him, and even _more_ inexplicably, he _flinched_ for it. He hadn't flinched at anything in longer than he could remember. Xaldin had literally thrown one of his lances at him, striking the back of his chair mere inches from his face, close enough to trim the ends of his hair, and he hadn't flinched. Light, he _hated_ emotions sometimes. Everything had seemed so much simpler, so much easier, back when he had been able to convince himself that he wasn't afraid of anything, that nothing mattered because he couldn't care about anything anyway.

"Lea, are you okay?" Kairi's hand was on his, and suddenly nothing made any sense at all.

Wait, what?

"Wait, _what_?" He looked at her with confusion which became outright bafflement when he realized the fear in her eyes was gone and replaced with concern. Why the hell was she worried about _him_? "Kairi, I could have really hurt you just now, you know that, right?"

"I know you _could_ ," she said, frowning at him, "just like I know Riku could, or Sora could. You guys have all fought in really hard battles, you've fought for your _lives_ , don't you think I know you're capable of that?" She sighed softly. "I know you _can_ hurt me. I also know that you _won't_ hurt me, not on purpose. I shouldn't have snuck up on you, that was my own fault, but..." She looked at him again, searching his face. "Lea, I've never seen you look that way," she said, and Lea realized suddenly that she was literally holding his hand and he hadn't even noticed. His ears burned with something that wasn't quite embarrassment, and he quickly withdrew his hand from hers, a little flustered.

"Why are you worried about _me_ , though?" he asked, shaking his head and getting unsteadily to his feet. He wasn't sure why this whole thing left _him_ feeling so rattled--Kairi was the one who had nearly gotten skewered, but she seemed to be handling things just fine. He sat down on the edge of the bed and smeared both hands down his face.

"Uh, because it's not entirely normal to go into full combat mode just because someone came to wake you up?" she ventured, standing up and dusting her knees off before sitting down beside him on the bed. "For that one second before you realized who I was, you looked completely terrified, like you really thought I was going to hurt you." She canted her head a bit, her brow furrowed. "Is that really what life with the Organization was like? Were you always afraid like that?"

Lea scoffed bitterly. "No," he said. "I wasn't... _afraid_. I couldn't feel anything at all, remember? So... now I guess I'm just making up for lost time."

Emotions were complicated, that much he knew, but after being deprived of them for so long, even if that had been psychosomatic from day one, meant that now that he had no excuses to hide behind, everything felt too sharp, too bright, like stepping into the sun after hiding in the dark for half your life.

"You don't have to look so ashamed of that," she said, and Lea gave her a puzzled frown. 

"Feelings are stupid," he complained, and she smiled a tolerant smile.

"Can't argue with you there." She shifted to turn toward him, tucking one leg up on the bed, and rested her hands on her ankle. "I don't really know what you went through, working for the Organization," she said, "but... I got a glimpse of it when I was there in the castle dungeon, you know?"

He grimaced. Was reminding him of what his actions had put her through supposed to make him feel _better_?

"I met another Nobody while I was down there," she said. "He was... kind of like you."

"Like me?" Lea was really confused now, and was considering feeling insulted.

"I never caught his name," she said. "He had dark blond hair that was kinda..." She made a gesture with both hands along the sides of her head. "It stuck up on top and was longish in the back."

Yup, definitely insulted.

"That's Demyx," he said, shaking his head with a grim smile. "He was kind of a dope, but... he wasn't such a bad guy, I guess."

Kairi hesitated, fiddling with her hands. "He didn't really want to hurt anybody, either, but he knew he had to do what he was told or there would be consequences," she said, then lowered her eyes. "At one point, I managed to escape from the cell. Those weird wobbly things opened the bars for me."

"The Dusks?" Lea snorted a laugh. "Why'd they let you out?"

Kairi tapped her chin. "Well, they were wiggling around, and it looked like that was how they talked to each other," she said, frowning a bit. "I was trying to just squeeze through the bars, but my stupid hips were too wide, so I got stuck, and they were staring at me." She shrugged. "I figured things probably couldn't get any worse, so I just... wiggled at them."

Lea couldn't help himself--he laughed, bringing a hand to his face to stifle the amusement. Kairi grinned a little, shaking her head.

"It worked, somehow," she said. "They raised the bars so I could get unstuck, and then I just sort of walked out of the cell." She made a face. "But then I guess they realized they'd screwed up, because they freaked out and started chasing me."

Lea was still busy trying not to laugh too hard. "Jeez, it's a wonder the Organization lasted half as long as it did, honestly," he said, shaking his head. "Our manpower was a _joke_."

Kairi gave him that look she wore when she was indulging him. She knew by now that laughter was his go-to defense mechanism; when things got too awkward, too real, he cracked jokes, usually at his own expense. Perceptive girl that she was, Kairi humored him, but only for so long.

"Anyway," she said, folding her hands in her lap, "Demyx was sent to catch me, I guess, 'cuz he chased me and Pluto around for a while." She ducked her head, smiling sheepishly. "When he finally caught up to us, I... punched him in the face."

Lea barked a sharp laugh. "Why am I not surprised?"

"But he swore he wasn't going to hurt me," she continued. "The... Dusks, you said? The wiggly Nobodies that had been guarding me, he sent them away, and he... he _begged_ me to go back to the cell." She looked up at Lea then, her expression strained with sympathy. "He said if I got away, he would be erased--destroyed... He said he wouldn't try and stop me again if I just cooperated, just this once." She shook her head. "He was just so... _desperate_. He was _terrified_ , you know? I know you say Nobodies couldn't feel, but... Lea, he was really afraid for his life." She lowered her eyes again, frowning at her hands. "I think, ultimately, that was what changed my mind about _you_."

"It wasn't the way I took that food you threw at me like a champ?" he asked, grinning, and she shoved him with her shoulder.

"Just because I could understand why you'd done what you did doesn't mean I wasn't perfectly within my rights to throw food at you," she said with a huff.

"... That's fair," Lea admitted with a shrug.

"The _point_ is," Kairi went on, looking at him again, "that nobody--er... pun not intended-- _no one_ should be afraid for their life like that, whether they acknowledge they're afraid or not. And you spent like ten years being that kind of afraid?" She shook her head adamantly. "That's _terrible_! And... it makes sense, to me, why you would... not like being snuck up on."

There was such urgency and compassion in her eyes that Lea felt a little unsettled somehow. Kairi was really intense sometimes. Not the same way Riku was intense--Riku could give you a stinkeye that rivaled a laser gun--but it was like Kairi was made up of pure concentrated Give A Damn, and that was so completely _alien_ to him he didn't even know how to process it. No matter what was happening, no matter what the situation was, Kairi just always... _cared_ so damn much about... well, _everything_. She cared about other people's feelings, if they were happy or scared or satisfied or upset; she cared about whether or not the people around her were comfortable with whatever was happening, and if they weren't, she actively sought to change that. He had nearly just given her an impromptu tracheotomy with one of the spikes of his chakrams, and _she_ was the one apologizing for not taking his decidedly traumatic history into account.

What the actual hell? How was this girl even real?

Lea blew out a sigh and sagged where he sat, feeling a little deflated. He was still pretty embarrassed by the way he'd reacted, but mostly he was just glad that Kairi hadn't been hurt. On top of the fact that he would have never been able to forgive himself, Riku probably would have murdered him. Now that his heart rate had returned to normal and his hands had stopped shaking, he mostly just felt ashamed of himself. Of _course_ no one here on the islands would be sneaking into Riku's house to kill him! What had he even been thinking?

On that note...

"What're you doing here, anyway?" he asked, glancing at the alarm clock on the bedside table. He squinted, frowned, then gave Kairi a mildly sour look. "Young lady, do you have any idea what time it is?"

She looked at the clock, then smiled brightly up at him. "It's 6:49AM."

"And today is a free day from training and missions," he said, the sour look a bit more sour now. " _Why_ are you here waking me up before 7AM on a day off?" He gave a despondent sigh and let his head loll to one side. "I was really looking forward to sleeping in..."

"Oh, you'll live," she said, getting to her feet and then making grabbyhands at him. "I need your help with something, and we've only got a few hours."

He looked at her hands, then met her eyes, then stretched his arms up over his head, groaning softly. Now that the adrenaline had abated, he was still kind of sleepy, but it was hard to say no to Kairi when she fixed you with that imploring look of hers.

"All right, okay, fine," he said, reaching out and dutifully offering his wrists. She gripped them firmly and leaned back to haul him to his feet, and he arched his back with a grimace. "I'm not changing out of my pajamas, though."

Kairi gestured down at her own clothing: long lavender sweatshorts and a tee shirt that said Rock Star in glittery letters with a paopu fruit off to one side.

"I'm not exactly dressed black tie, myself," she said, and waved a hand. "Dress code is whatever, just come with me." She glanced back at him over her shoulder then. "Also were you seriously wearing an _eye mask_?"

"I'm very photosensitive, okay?" he harrumphed. Hiding a yawn behind one hand, Lea followed Kairi out into the hallway, and then into an adjacent bedroom, which seemed odd to him. "Front door's downstairs, Princess," he reminded her as she headed for the sliding door that opened to a small balcony.

"Front doors are for normal people," she said plainly, and as Lea watched in befuddlement, Kairi slid the door open and stepped outside. "Come on, we're wasting time."

Lea brought a hand to his face and pressed a knuckle against his lower lip, puzzled, but obediently stepped out onto the balcony with her. It was still a little strange to Lea that the seasons didn't really change much here on the islands. Radiant Garden had always had four distinct seasons, and it was always chilly by this time of year, especially in the early morning. Here, however, the temperature rarely dipped below 65°, even in the dead of night, even though it was late fall. The idea of swimming in winter was completely bizarre to him, but Kairi had assured him that it was actually kind of a tradition for her and Riku and Sora to have a race around the play island on New Year's Day, which included swimming out past the old bent paopu tree and back. All Lea could think of was the time he had dared Isa to walk across the frozen fountain court with him one January. Isa had, of course, refused, and Lea had fallen through the ice. The water was only knee-deep, of course, so there hadn't been any dire consequences of his stupidity. Lea had simply walked home barefoot in his boxers to the tune of Isa assuring him he was never going to be seen in public with him again.

Good times.

Turning his attention back to Kairi, Lea let out a sudden, sharp gasp of alarm as he watched Kairi clamber up onto the railing of the balcony like she was going to jump.

"Kairi--holy _jeez_ what are you--?"

Before he could reach out and snatch up a handful of the back of her tee shirt, she had launched herself from the railing to catch the overhanging branches of a tree. She took a moment to move nimbly across the branches until she was close enough to swing herself onto another balcony on the other side, landing with such ease as to assure Lea that this was a common sort of thing she probably did every day. (Somehow, he wasn't actually surprised.)

"Kairi, what in the name of Yen Sid's beard are you _doing_?" he called across the two-story drop between the two balconies. "Whose house even is that?"

"Uh, mine?" She gave him a puzzled look. "You've been living at Riku's house for like six months and you never realized I was his next-door neighbor?"

Lea made a noise in the back of his throat. "... Apparently I did not," he admitted. "I guess I thought you just walked with Riku on your way home and then kept going."

"Well, technically I do," she said, folding her arms, "I just go next door." She popped her hip impatiently. "So are you coming or not?"

"Princess, I will literally die if I try that stunt."

"Oh, you will not, quit being such a wuss."

"Is this how you _always_ come visit Riku?" he asked, gesturing at the tree. "I wondered why I never heard the doorbell whenever you came over."

"Actually it was Sora who first thought to try it out," she said. "He didn't quite make it the first time, though, and fell and broke his arm."

"And he tried _again_?"

"You'd think you wouldn't be surprised by this stuff anymore," she remarked, and Lea smeared a hand down his face.

"You'd think..."

"So are you coming or not?"

Lea fixed her with a withering look. "I suppose you're going to make fun of me the rest of my natural life if I go use the door like a normal person," he said, and Kairi looked contemplative for a moment, then nodded. Lea sighed. "Fine," he grumbled. Let it never be said that Lea backed down from a challenge.

Approximately ten minutes and forty-seven scrapes on his arms and face later, Lea managed to hurl himself onto Kairi's balcony. He dusted his arms and knees off, then glowered at her.

"I could have been here like eight minutes ago if you'd just let me use the damn door," he complained, and she patted his arm appreciatively.

"But then I wouldn't have gotten to see you scrabbling through a tree like a gangly monkey," she said brightly, and Lea just sighed. The things he did for these weirdos he was inexplicably fond of...

"So what exactly have I gotten myself roped into?" he asked, following Kairi inside and down a hallway.

"I need to get some stuff out of the attic," she said, pausing halfway down a long, carpeted corridor and pointing straight up. Lea lifted his head and frowned at the string that hung from a hinged door above them. The attic? Oh, goody. He glanced at Kairi, then reached up to tug the string, and with a loud groan the attic ladder descended from above them. He unfolded it and put a hand on his hip, arching an eyebrow at Kairi. 

"I feel like we're in cahoots," he said.

"We are totally in cahoots," Kairi assured him, grabbing the ladder and climbing it swiftly. "Come on!"

Lea rubbed the back of his neck, but dutifully took the sides of the ladder and followed her up.

"It's too early for cahoots. I'm gonna need some more details in regards to this cahootification," he said dryly. "I did not sign a waiver entitling you to my free services in your shenaniganating."

"Lea, stop making up words," she chided. "Besides, you're living in Riku's house for free, I should think that entitles me to a couple favors at 7AM."

"That would entitle _Riku_ to a couple favors at 7AM," he corrected with exaggerated grumpiness. "You don't get favors by proxy."

"What if I said please?" she asked, cresting the ladder and stepping aside so Lea could join her.

"Aa--! You _didn't_ say please!" He looked indignant. "Here I was, all prepared to actually do you a favor, and you didn't even ask nicely."

He was actually kind of glad that she didn't have a sharp retort for that one, considering he'd almost made a kebab out of her not half an hour ago. He supposed that was worth at least one shenanigan at 7AM, even if she _had_ been the one to sneak up on him and catalyze said almost-kebabing.

Kairi waited by the edge of the hole in the attic floor and then gestured when he climbed up alongside her. "Okay, this is my father's attic," she said, gesturing, and Lea looked a little taken aback.

"I think this attic is bigger than your gran's entire _house_ ," he said.

Of course the mayor's house was quite large, so logically the space above the living space was also quite large, but Lea hadn't expected it to be _this_ large. The ceiling was slanted to a point overhead, and several rows of metal shelving stood in the center of the room, stacked with boxes and garment bags and all variety of strange trinkets and mysterious things. Lea reached out and picked up a small wooden box, opening the lid curiously and then jumping, startled, when bright, tinny orgel music began to play. He almost dropped the music box, closing the lid quickly and putting it back on the shelf.

Kairi grinned at him, then headed toward a far corner of the attic.

"Follow me," she said.

Lea trailed after her, squinting a little in the light from the windows at either end of the space. The air up here was a bit musty and quite stagnant, and he could see exposed insulation from the walls along the floorboards. He remembered going up into the attic in his own house once or twice, usually to look for something for his mother, but he had been quite convinced that the attic was haunted. It had been much smaller than this attic, with no windows, and in the shuddering light from the swinging light bulb overhead, every shadow had looked very sinister. In comparison, this attic almost felt _welcoming_.

"This is what I need your help with," Kairi said, gesturing at a particular shelving unit. Lea glanced up at the stacked boxes, noting that a few of them were labeled: 'Xmas', 'Easter', something he couldn't quite decipher. "Somewhere in this... general area," she said, waving her hands about, "is a box of birthday party decorations. I need you to help me find it."

"Because you can't reach the boxes on the top shelf?" he asked.

"Because I can't reach the boxes on the top shelf," she confirmed.

"Right, then." Lea stretched one arm across his chest, then the other, then cracked his knuckles. "Okay, let's get to this," he said, and reached up to try and get a grip on the highest box on the top shelf. "So who's having a party?" he asked, and Kairi slid one of the boxes down from the second shelf, pulling the lid off to look inside.

"We are," she said.

"We are?"

"Mmhm!" She put the lid back on the box and set it aside. "It's Riku's birthday today."

"Wait, _what_?" Lea stepped backward, pulling the box with him, but he hadn't quite been able to see the wad of fabric on top of it. It fell as he pulled the box down and landed on his head, covering his hair and kicking a cloud of dust up into the air. "Ugh," he complained, setting the box down and pulling the fabric off his head, waving his hand in the air and making a _ptuh!_ noise. Great, just what he needed. "It's Riku's birthday?" he asked, tossing the festively colored crumpled wad of fabric aside and giving Kairi an incredulous look. "Why didn't anybody tell me?"

"You didn't ask?" Kairi ventured, pulling down another box and lifting the lid. "I'm sorry, I guess I just didn't think to mention it."

"But you planned a party without me," Lea said dryly, still swatting at the dust motes in the air.

"Oh, no, no, it's not like that," Kairi assured him, rummaging through the box. "Sora and I try and put a little something together every year, but we have to keep it a secret. Riku doesn't really ever do anything on his birthday, it's like any other day for him. I mean, it's Halloween, so people are going to parties and stuff already anyway--he just never wants to take anyone away from that just for his birthday."

Lea responded with a short, sharp gasp, then turned away and muffled a sneeze into the crook of his arm. Kairi looked up at him, smiling a little.

"Bless you," she said, and then went back to the box. "But yeah, since we kind of just throw a little something together every year, I didn't even think to mention it."

"I guess I forgive you," Lea said, scrubbing at his nose. "Where _is_ Riku, anyway? What's keeping him from finding us up here and putting a stop to this whole thing?"

"There's a thing that the community center does every Halloween, for all the kids in town," Kairi said. "There's a costume contest and a little haunted house and a bunch of games and stuff--you know, for the kids who are too little to be out after dark to go trick-or-treating. It's from like nine in the morning to maybe an hour after lunch. Riku helps with it every year."

"Nothing less from Riku," Lea said, shaking his head with a smile.

"I know, right?" Kairi rubbed her chin. "After that, he's probably gonna be stuck back at his house, going over stuff for the festival."

"Festival?"

Kairi set the box aside and pulled another off the bottom shelf. "He's turning eighteen," she said, "so it's a special birthday and his folks are undoubtedly gonna pull out all the stops to go the traditional route."

"Oh, eighteen's a special one?" he asked, and Kairi nodded. "Whaddaya mean, 'traditional route'?"

"Ah, so... I guess you don't really know a lot of the islands' cultural stuff, do you?" she asked, settling on her knees to rummage through the box. Lea shook his head, scrubbing at his nose again, then sniffed and reached for another box. "So you've probably noticed that the population of the islands is kind of split. There's families like Riku and Sora and Wakka's, whose ancestry goes way back, originating here on the islands. And then there's families like mine and Selphie and Tidus', whose ancestry comes from the mainland."

He paused, another box in his hands, and considered this a moment. "You know, I think I noticed, but it didn't really register," he admitted. "I mean, some worlds are full of people who all look ethnically similar, like... the Land of Dragons," he said, "and others have people who all look super different, like... ah, well, Twilight Town, or Radiant Garden." He paused a moment, crinkling his nose, feeling like maybe he was going to sneeze again, but the feeling went away after a moment. Ugh, why did attics have to be so dusty? "So I guess I just figured this place was more like Radiant Garden, where people don't always look the same."

Kairi hummed in thought. "I can see that," she said, but before she could continue, Lea snapped a hand up, one finger lifted as the tickly feeling in his sinuses returned. He turned away and sneezed twice into his shoulder, then sniffed and turned back to her.

"Sorry, go on."

"Bless you again," she said, chuckling, and then pushed aside the box she'd been poking through. "Oh, I was just gonna say, the mainlanders here have always made a point of... well, pointing out how the islanders are so _different_ ," she said, shaking her head. "Which is dumb. I mean, you've been in Riku's house, it isn't like the people with island ancestry live in huts and wear loincloths or something. I guess it just... might be kind of nice to live somewhere everybody just got along."

Lea snorted. "I didn't say everybody got along in Radiant Garden," he said, "I just said we don't all necessarily look like we come from the same place. People are gonna find reasons to think they're better than other people, no matter what, so... don't worry about it too much." He scrubbed at his nose again, then reached for another box. "So, the islanders, the mainlanders, and traditional routes?"

"Right," Kairi said, looking a little unsettled. "The islanders lived here in this little archipelago, and the mainlanders were, of course, on the mainland," she said, "and about..."--she paused, thinking--"600 years ago, the mainland decided it wanted to own the islands, too, so the two cultures collided." She waved a hand and reached for the box Lea was holding. He handed it to her and leaned against the shelving unit as she took the lid off and prodded at the contents. "Long story short, now Destiny Islands is both the larger mainland _and_ the islands, and because the two cultures couldn't really find a compromise, there's just kind of... two sets of everything now."

Lea snickered. "I guess that's one way to do it," he said. "I mean, that's what happens when people from other worlds or religions or whatever marry--the kids get presents for two sets of holidays."

"Well, sure, but it's a little dumb, here," Kairi said, shaking her head. "The mainlanders believe that you're an adult when you turn sixteen. You can leave home if you want to, drop out of school if you want to, get your own house, run for mayor, whatever."

"Sixteen on Radiant Garden, too," Lea said.

"But for the islanders, it was eighteen," she said, "and neither side would compromise, so now there's this weird discrepancy. Sixteen is an important birthday because according to world law, you're a grownup. But the islanders celebrate eighteen as a big birthday, too, so mainlanders started doing it, so now everybody just gets two milestone birthdays two years apart."

Lea shrugged. "There are worse things than two special birthdays in quick succession," he admitted, and grabbed another box from the top shelf when Kairi closed the one she'd been looking through and slid it aside. "So what are we doing, then?" he asked. "For Riku's Special Birthday #2."

"I thought I'd call up Selphie and Tidus and Wakka and see what they were doing," she said, "and maybe we could--bless you"--she didn't glance up this time when Lea smothered another sneeze into his elbow--"and we could spend the evening at the beach. Riku really loves spending time there, but we're almost always training lately."

"How do you get Riku to _go_ , though?" Lea asked, reaching up to grab another box, wriggling his nose as he did so. "No training today, so he's gonna know _something's_ up if we try and drag him to the beach."

Kairi tapped her chin. "That's a good point," she said, sitting back on her heels and replacing the lid on the box, setting it aside with the other. "We'll need some kind of distraction or something."

Pulling down another box from the top shelf, Lea sort of coughed when another cloud of dust came with it, and quickly set the box down on top of the first one. "Well, it's Halloween, right?" he said, rubbing his hand over his face and shaking his head quickly. "Why not tell him there's a c..." He trailed off for a moment, then muffled two more sneezes into the crook of his arm.

"Gezoo... what's that word you always say?" Kairi asked.

"Gesun..." Another sneeze, and Lea made a frustrated noise, scrubbing furiously at his nose as it continued to itch persistently. "Gesundheit," he said finally.

"Gezoo-kachoo," Kairi said with a giggle, and when he sneezed twice more and shook his head like it had left him dizzy, she gave him a mildly concerned look. "And bless you again. Lea, are you feeling okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine," he assured her, sniffling and then reaching for another box. "It's just _dusty_ up here. Dust always..."--he hesitated, scrunching his face up again, mashing two knuckles against his nose--"always makes me sneeze like crazy." His breath hitched on the last word, and he pinched his nose to stifle the next sneeze, jerking forward and nearly hitting his head on the shelf and then sort of groaning as the beginnings of a headache bloomed behind his eyes for the effort.

"Bless you. Why didn't you say something?" Kairi asked, giving him a reproachful look, putting her hands on her hips as she got to her feet.

"You didn't ask?" Lea said as he reached for the box again. "It's not a big deal, don't worry about it," he said, setting the box down and rubbing his face with both hands. "It isn't like it's dangerous or anything. I'm not _sick_ , it's just annoying."

"Hold on, don't go anywhere," Kairi said, and before Lea could ask where exactly she thought he would even _go_ , she had disappeared down the ladder and left him alone in the attic.

He shrugged, turning back to the shelving unit and pulling down the last two boxes, along with all of the dust that had accumulated on top of them. He was busy muffling a trio of vicious sneezes into his elbow again when he heard the ladder creaking to signal Kairi's return. A little embarrassed, he pinched back one more sneeze and then gestured to the empty top shelf.

"Tada~"

"Gezoo-kachoo," Kairi said, holding her arm out and offering him something. He blinked at the little white bit of fabric in her hand and held it up curiously, and she chuckled. "It's a mask," she said, putting both hands in front of her nose and mouth. "You hook the sides over your ears, and it covers your face. It'll help filter out the dust."

"Oh." Lea fiddled with the mask a moment, trying to figure out which way it went, then experimentally pulled the sides over his ears. It was a little strange breathing through the fabric, and he laughed. "Now I feel like I'm gonna go rob a bank," he said, making a gun with his fingers. She put her hands up like she surrendered, but before he could take hostages he turned away to smother another itchy-sounding sneeze into his arm. 

"Bless you."

"Ugh, I guess there's still some dust _in_ there," he grumbled, and then gave Kairi a helpless sort of smile, though it was mostly hidden behind the mask. "Ah, thanks, though."

"No problem," she said. "Now you can have an eye mask _and_ a nose mask. Still up for helping me look?"

"Sure, sure," he said with a nod and a pointed sniff, his voice a little muffled by the mask. He dropped to a crouch and pulled the lid off the nearest box. "What exactly am I lookin' for?"

"Crepe paper, some tinsely things that look kinda like fountains?" She made a little exploding gesture with her hands. "Some balloons. Um, I think there's a bunch of paper plates and cups, too."

"Gotcha," Lea said, rummaging through his box. "So what's this traditional stuff Riku's folks are gonna make him go through?"

"Oh, it's this... ceremonial... stuff," she said, waving a hand. "I don't actually know a whole lot about it, honestly. My dad knows a lot about the island traditions, but that's 'cuz he's the mayor--he _has_ to know about that stuff, 'cuz the islanders make up about a third of the world's population." She shook her head. "They don't teach a lot about the islanders' customs and things in the schools, though, which is a shame. What I know about it, I've learned from Sora and Riku, and it's really interesting stuff. There's special dances they do, and ceremonial costumes. Riku kind of hates it, though, most of it."

"He does?"

"Mmhm," she said with a nod. "He doesn't get along real well with his family, as you know, so when they try and get him to do cultural things, he kind of digs his heels in." She sighed. "It's less that he's rejecting where he comes from and more that he's rejecting his parents _forcing_ him to partake in everything."

"I guess that makes some sense," Lea admitted, and then gave a yelp of alarm when there was a sudden blast of electronic-sounding music and everything in the box he was investigating started to vibrate. "What in the hell--?"

"Oh, jeez, I thought Dad got rid of that creepy thing," Kairi muttered, crawling over to Lea's box and reaching in to pull out a figurine of a fat man in a red suit who was shaking his hips to a jaunty tune.

"Isn't that that Sandy Claws guy?" Lea asked, making a face as Kairi pressed a button on the bottom of the figurine and it fell silent.

"Santa Claus," she corrected gently, replacing the figure in the box and putting the lid back on it. "This box is all Christmas, so we can move on."

"Does he really break into people's houses and leave presents?" Lea asked, shifting to sit on his bottom and folding his legs up as he reached for another box. "That just seems really"--he hesitated, sneezed again, then shook his head quickly and cleared his throat--"seems really shady, to me."

"Bless you," Kairi laughed. "Sora told me how there's actually a real Santa Claus in one of the worlds he went to," she said then, pulling the lid off another box, "but here on this one, it's just your parents. Santa's a story to get little kids to behave. If you misbehave, you get on Santa's 'naughty list', and you don't get any presents. If you're _really_ bad, you get a lump of coal in your stocking."

"So he's a scare tactic," Lea reasoned with a nod. "Right, 'cuz that's so much less shady."

She grabbed a wad of festive holiday napkins and threw it at him, laughing. "You're so culturally insensitive!" she accused, and he put his hands up in the air.

"Hey, I'm just callin' 'em like I see 'em!" he insisted with a snicker, lifting a rolled-up decorative flag out of the box in front of him and holding it out at arm's length. "What's _this_ for?" he asked, turning it around so Kairi could see it.

"That's for Easter," she said, waving her hand. "You can put that box aside, too."

He put the flag back and closed the box, sliding it away and reaching for another. "What's Easter?"

"Mm, that's kinda complicated," she said, tapping her chin. "The abridged story is that the son of God died so that humans would be forgiven for their sins, and then three days later he was raised from the dead."

"... So he's a zombie."

Kairi palmed her face. "Oh my _God_ , Lea, seriously?"

He shrugged, boggling at her. He wasn't the one spouting off bizarre religious stories. "So what do zombies have to do with rabbits?" he asked, gesturing at the box, and Kairi waved her hand.

"Oh, that's the Easter Bunny," she said, and he arched one eyebrow.

"Still doesn't explain relation to zombies."

Kairi hefted a sigh and opened her mouth to speak when there was a sudden violent creaking of the ladder. They both turned to look toward the hole in the floor, and Kairi let out a delighted gasp when a familiar spiky head popped into view, looking around rather frantically.

"Sora!" she cried, scrabbling to her feet and dashing over to meet him, throwing her arms around his neck as he climbed up into the attic. "I didn't know you were coming home!"

"Am I too late?" Sora gasped, taking Kairi's shoulders and looking at her with wide, worried eyes. "I didn't see Riku anywhere, did I miss the party? Did he bail on it already?" 

"No, no, you didn't miss anything," Kairi assured him, shaking her head. "Sora, it's not even eight in the morning, do you think we would have the party this early? He's doing his Halloween for the kids thing, and then he's gotta do traditional stuff at home. We're looking for the decorations so we can put something together for him this evening," she said, gesturing toward Lea.

Only then did Sora seem to notice Lea was also in the attic, and he started to wave, then made a face. "Axel, did you rob a bank?"

Lea arched one eyebrow at him. "First of all, it's _Lea_ ," he said, shaking a finger at him, though he supposed he didn't exactly look intimidating with the stupid mask on his face. "Would you get it memorized already?"

Sora folded his arms. "First it's memorize _Axel_ , now it's memorize _Lea_ ," he complained. "What's your name gonna be next week? You can't tell people to memorize stuff and then just _change_ it, that's not fair."

"Life ain't fair, kiddo," Lea snorted, which apparently upset his nose, because there was that insufferable itchy feeling again. He turned aside suddenly to sneeze, and Sora looked worried about this.

"Bless you! Did you get sick?" he asked, frowning.

"Yes, I've got the plague," Lea said dryly, "that's why I'm working in close quarters with Kairi: sharing is caring. I thought it'd be my birthday present to Riku, too."

"He's just allergic to dust," Kairi said, waving her hand when Sora looked alarmed by this. "I gave him the mask 'cuz I thought it'd help. He doesn't have the plague."

"Oh, that's lame," Sora said, frowning at Lea, and then waved his hands. "I mean, that you have allergies, not that you don't have the plague. Riku's got allergies, too, they drive him nuts in the spring, and when he takes medicine for it he can't stay awake. He slept through a whole class period once, and was so mortified he just stopped taking the medicine. Of course, then he was too busy sneezing to take notes, so he didn't do very well in that class anyway."

As if on cue, Lea doubled forward with another sneeze ("Bless you," Kairi said insistently), then irritatedly swatted at the remaining dust that hung in the air. "Yeah," he said with a sniff, "it's a real picnic."

Kairi shook her head a little, giving Sora a smile. "So what are you doing home, anyway?" she asked. "Is your special training stuff over?"

"I wish," Sora complained, sagging a little. "I'm just playing hooky today 'cuz it's Riku's birthday. Yen Sid says I've still got a lot of work to do before I'm gonna be ready to take the exam again. Now that I've got Roxas' memories and everything, he says it's like I have to learn to distinguish between what's _mine_ and what... isn't, before I can master the Keyblade. 'You have to know your own heart from the facets around it', he said, whatever that means." He scratched his head and shrugged helplessly. "It's weird," he said, "having somebody else in your heart."

Kairi grinned. "Try _being_ the somebody else," she teased, and Sora's eyes widened abruptly.

"A-ahh, that isn't what I meant!" he cried, waving his hands. "It wasn't weird having your heart in my heart, I would never call you weird or anything!"

"Sora, it's fine," Kairi giggled. "It _is_ weird, and that's okay." She pressed her hands over her chest, smiling softly. "I can feel Naminé sometimes," she said. "It's not exactly a conscious thing, it happens when I see the sunset from a certain angle, or when Riku or Lea say something in particular, I just feel..." She paused, pressing her lips together and tilting her head. "I feel like my heart is very full," she said finally. "Sometimes I even feel like sketching, which is _really_ strange, especially since I can hardly draw a stick figure!"

Lea stared at her a moment, frowning a little. When he said something in particular? What did she mean by that? Of course he remembered the conversations he'd had with Naminé, but did certain words or turns of phrase somehow evoke Naminé's consciousness within Kairi? He found himself wondering if he could actually communicate with them, with Roxas and Naminé, if he said the right things to Sora and Kairi. How deeply buried within these young people's hearts _were_ they? There had been times when Kairi had startled him, with just how much she could _look_ like Naminé from the right angle, in the right light. There had been times he could have _sworn_ it was Roxas staring at him from behind Sora's eyes. But... that was all just in his imagination, right? It was wishful thinking, nothing more.

"Sora," he said then, tearing his mind away from morose thoughts, and Sora looked at him, eyebrows lifted. "Do you know what rabbits have to do with zombies?"

Sora squinted at him like he'd gone slightly out of focus.

"S'cuse me?" he asked, and then looked at Kairi. "Is this a riddle? You know I stink at riddles."

Kairi shook her head. "It's not a riddle," she said, rolling her eyes, "Lea just doesn't get the Easter Bunny."

"Ohh." Sora nodded, smiling. Then he frowned again, one eyebrow arched. "But... zombies?"

"Yeah, some god guy gets raised from the dead, right?" he asked, tilting his head. "That's what Easter celebrates?"

"But he's not a _zombie_ ," Sora insisted. "That would mean he's still _dead_."

"So he gets brought back to _life_?" Lea looked accusingly at Kairi. "You said he got raised from the dead! There's a difference, you know?"

"Sorry," she said, making a face, "I didn't realize you were an expert on miracles versus necromancy."

"What _does_ the Easter Bunny have to do with it, though?" Sora asked, scratching his head. "I mean I know the story of The Resurrection, but... how _did_ a rabbit leaving eggs and baskets in your house become part of the holiday?"

"The rabbit leaves eggs in your house?" Lea looked absolutely flabbergasted. Was this a _theme_? "You mean to tell me this one breaks into houses, too? Why do all of your holidays involve breaking and entering?" Destiny Islanders were weird. "Are there any _other_ fairy-tale creatures I should be concerned I might just bump into without warning?"

"Don't tell him about the Tooth Fairy," Kairi said in a stage whisper, and Lea decided he was probably better off not knowing. 

He turned his attention back to another box, pulling the lid off and making a bright noise when he saw rolls of crepe paper and those tinsel fountains.

"Ah, Kairi, I found it," he called, waving the box lid at her.

"Oh, perfect," she said, turning to head over to him and crouching down in front of the box to look at the contents. "Awesome, this is it! Thanks, Lea."

"No pr..." He hesitated, then stifled a sneeze, which just made the next one stronger and his nose itchier. 

"Bless you," Kairi whispered, her hand by her mouth, and Lea sighed gratingly.

Doubled forward and rubbing at the headache that was still forming behind his eyes, he shook his head. "Anyway," he said after a moment, getting to his feet and grabbing one of the discarded boxes to shove it back up onto the top shelf. "Oof, okay, so..." He grabbed another box. "What's the plan?"

"You started to say something, before," Kairi said, picking up a box and replacing it on the highest shelf she could reach. "Something about it being Halloween, and that's how we could get Riku to come to a party?"

Lea looked a little abashed, shoving the box up onto the top shelf and dusting his hands off. "I was gonna say, why not just tell him there's a costume party on the beach?" he asked. "That happens, right? I mean, you guys live at the beach, surely you have parties there sometimes."

"We do," Sora said, coming up behind them and grabbing a box to help. "Usually in the summer, there's festivals and stuff they hold on the beach." He slid a box onto the shelf below the top one, rubbing his chin in thought. "I'm not sure there's ever been a _costume_ party on the beach, though. Not like a Halloween-style one, anyway."

"Sounds like a great time to throw one, then," Lea said, pushing another box up onto the top shelf. "That way, Riku won't have any idea it's even _for_ him until you guys shout surprise and fling gifts at him."

Oh, right, gifts. Damn, he was going to have to go emergency shopping or something; he couldn't be the only one without a present for him, that would just be rude.

"That's a great idea!" Kairi said, clapping her hands together. "Lea, you're a genius!"

"I know," he said, posturing a little. Of course, he wasn't allowed to hold onto that moment of bravado. His moment of preening was thoroughly ruined when he had to turn away to sneeze again, muffling the sound into the crook of his arm.

"Bless you," Kairi said, laughing quietly, and Lea just grumbled, scrunching his face up.

"You don't have to keep..."--he sniffled, but managed to keep the impending follow-up sneeze at bay--"keep saying that, you know? Ugh, I feel like there's _burrs_ up my nose. Let's just get all this junk put away so I can go back downstairs," he said, scrubbing at his nose through the mask.

With Sora's help, it only took a few minutes to get the rest of the boxes put away, and Lea hefted the box of birthday decorations, heading for the ladder that led back downstairs. Kairi descended first, and Lea nodded for Sora to go after her before he shifted the box up to his shoulder and carefully made his way down the ladder last. About halfway down, he sniffled through the mask and crinkled up his nose, holding his breath when he felt like he needed to sneeze again. He guessed that was what he got for repressing it before. He didn't want to drop the box, though. Ugh, this was such a drag. He'd had the same problem every time it had been his turn to clean out the storage closets in the Castle That Never Was, and no matter how he had tried to trade chores with Demyx or Luxord, he was never able to get out of it.

As soon as he made it to the bottom of the ladder, he swiftly handed the box off to Sora and buried his face in his arm. Four increasingly violent sneezes later, he gripped the ladder and shook his head, a little dizzy again. Yup, just like closet duty.

" _Bless_ you!" Sora and Kairi said in tandem, and Lea tore the mask off his face, looking tired and peeved.

"Next time you need me to get boxes off the top shelf," he said, rubbing his nose with the back of one hand, "make sure you hire a h..."--one more insistent sneeze that brought that headache behind his eyes to full force, and he grunted as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Hire a housekeeper first," he concluded grouchily.

"I'm sorry, Lea," Kairi said, looking at him with a sympathetic smile. "If I'd known it was gonna be that bad, I wouldn't have bothered you."

He waved a hand. "Don't worry about it," he said, crinkling his face this way and that and then pressing the back of his hand against his nose. Somehow he kind of felt like he deserved it, for what he'd nearly done to her earlier. "How long do you think it'll take to get things squared away?"

"Mm..." Kairi tapped her chin, then looked at Sora. "Riku will probably be tied up til at least one, with the kids, and then he'll be at home, being smothered by his mom."

Lea frowned a little. He still didn't quite get what was so bad about Hanako. He didn't know her very personally, really, but she seemed nice enough, and yet Riku seemed to go out of his way to avoid her. He guessed maybe it was none of his business, but he couldn't help the curiosity.

"Oh, he'll be at least another two hours getting ready for Shutsugen," Sora said, waving a hand, "so we've got 'til like at least 3:00."

"Shutsugen, that's what it's called," Kairi said, snapping her fingers. "I couldn't remember the name of the festival for the eighteenth birthday."

Sora grinned. "It means like... arrival," he told her, and then looked at Lea. "Eighteen is when you stop being a child and make your first appearance, your arrival, as an adult," he said, and then made a face. "Well, I mean, like you're a grownup at sixteen, legally, but there's no festival for that."

"Unless you count how Tidus and Wakka decided to raid their dads' wet bars and have a bonfire on the beach," Kairi snickered.

Sora sort of shrugged. "I guess that was _kind_ of like a festival," he said. "'Til the police showed up."

Lea stifled laughter at that. Somehow, he'd thought that everyone here on the islands was sweet and innocent the way Sora was, but apparently that wasn't the case. Maybe he needed to get to know Tidus and Wakka a little better.

"Okay, so 3PM," he said, giving another sharp sniffle and pressing the heel of his hand against his eye. "Would anyone object to my going back to bed until a less unreasonable hour, then?" he asked.

Kairi smiled. "Not at all," she said, and then suddenly looked upset. "Ah! But... Riku's house is gonna be locked," she said, "do you have a key?"

"I have a Key _blade_ , but somehow I doubt they'd appreciate me breaking into the house that way," he chuckled, and then heaved a great sigh. "Guess I'll have to parkour my way back over."

"No, no," Kairi said, grabbing him by the arm. "What if you have a sneezing fit halfway there and fall and break your neck? I'd never forgive myself," she said, and she seemed so very certain that this was exactly what would happen than Lea just sort of laughed helplessly.

"Should we have Sora break into Riku's house, then?" he asked, stuffing the face mask into his pocket. "He's got a lot more experience with B and E than I do."

" _Hey_!" Sora protested, hands on his hips. "I only used the Keyblade to pick a lock like... three times, okay?"

"I guess that makes you slightly better than Sandy Claws and the Easter Bunny," Lea said, and pressed the heel of his hand against his eye again, grimacing.

"Lea, you can nap in my room, if you want," Kairi said, and Lea felt his ears grow hot again.

"What? No, that's..." He shook his head. "Your room is like... your _sanctuary_ , I can't get like... boy cooties all over that."

"For crying out loud, Lea, are you seven?" she laughed. "Your eyes are all red and you look totally beat, just go nap on my bed." She gave him a hopeless look. "I can always wash the cooties off in the laundry, sheesh."

Lea stared at her a moment, then just exhaled softly. She was right, he was exhausted, and now he had a sinus headache on top of that. Just going back to sleep sounded like the best thing in the world, and he really didn't want to try and gymnastics his way back to his room in Riku's house. "All right," Lea said, pressing the pad of his thumb firmly against the ridge of his eyebrow. "If you're sure it's really okay."

"I'm sure it's really okay. Third door on the right," she said, pointing down the hallway. "Make yourself at home."

"I'll see you guys in a couple hours, then," he said, kind of charmed all over again at just how sincerely generous and thoughtful Kairi was. "If I'm not awake when it's go-time, come get me, okay?"

Kairi gave him a playful salute. "You got it," she said, and then winked at him. "How about I just knock, though?"

"That's probably a smart idea," he said.

"Feel better!" he heard Sora call as he turned to head down the hallway, his head pounding and his entire face feeling itchy and irritated.

Ducking into the bathroom, Lea ran his hands under the faucet and then splashed water on his face, rubbing it vigorously and then fumbling a moment for a towel. He squinted at himself in the mirror and made a bit of a face--eugh, _that_ was attractive, his eyes were almost as red as his hair--then quickly pinched his nose when it started to itch again. All right, enough of this, he was just going to go back to bed, and when he woke up, there would be no more dust and no more boxes and it would be a much more reasonable hour of the day.

He gently pushed open the indicated door, peering inside hesitantly, as though he expected it to be booby trapped. Well, girls' bedrooms had always been out of bounds when he'd had a heart to care about entering them, so aside from the one time he'd caught a glimpse of Larxene's room (which, incidentally, had looked pretty much exactly like the rest of their rooms in the Castle that Never Was: spartan grey and white), he'd never actually been inside a girl's room. He shut the door behind him and took a moment to glance around. The walls were pale blue, like the sky, and there were a few framed posters above the bed: movie posters, from the look of them. He hadn't seen any of the films--Shatterstern Peak, Ego and Enmity, The Vagabond's Key to the Universe--but the posters looked kind of interesting. Maybe he would ask her about them.

Beside the bed was a tall bookshelf, and he grinned a little, reaching up to gently touch the glass figurine of a cat that was perched near one of the edges. He remembered having trinkets in his bedroom long ago, too; robot figures, a collectible statue of his favorite actor, a stuffed dragon his brother had given him for his birthday one year. He wondered absently if those things were still there in his old room, or if his family had gotten rid of them when he hadn't come home.

Ugh, his head hurt too much to think about this right now. With a sniff and a scrunch of his nose, he sat down on the edge of the bed, smothering another pair of sneezes into his arm. Then he flopped sideways and buried his face in the pillow. It smelled like Kairi's shampoo: something a little fruity and floral, and he had to smile a bit. He really was lucky, he thought to himself. He hadn't even expected to survive this long, to get this second chance, and yet here he was, among good friends he genuinely cared about and who, against all odds, apparently genuinely cared about him, too. It was strange in a wonderful way, and he really wanted to find a way to properly thank them for letting him be a part of their lives. Even after everything Axel had done, after the terrible mistakes he had made and the lives he had hurt, these young people had accepted him, helped him, taught him so much. He wanted to do right by them, to prove to them that they hadn't made a mistake, but how?

The allergy-induced headache must have taken more out of him than he'd realized, though, because within five minutes, he had fallen back into a light, dreamless sleep. For the moment, finding a way to voice his appreciation would have to wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me tell you guys how much fun i had with this chapter. firstly, subtle illustrations of how past trauma have severely screwed with a character is one of my favorite things ever. i mean, lbrh, who in this series ISN'T a prime candidate for PTSD, you know? but i find a lot of depictions of trauma are kind of over the top and teetering way too close on armchair diagnoses, so i wanted to find a way to let Lea show us he's not as okay as he wants us to think, without moving into the sticky subject of characters having triggers. characters having dumb human mundane weaknesses is also relevant to my interests. i love having the opportunity to show super badass combat-veteran characters dealing with annoying everyday crap like injuries and allergies and other stupid shit because they're still human even if they can use magic and summon Hammerspace weapons.
> 
> also, CULTURESHOCK IS FUN. i never understood why so few people who write for this fandom ever delve into the fact that these characters are literally visiting not just other countries, but completely different WORLDS. customs are going to be different and strange. food and holidays and traditions are going to be alien to them. and that's a ton of fun to play with. since it's canon that Sora is a Santa Claus fanboy and Riku stopped believing in him, it served to reason, IMO, that Destiny Islands had at least a Christian presence somewhere among the population. if Christmas is celebrated, then in theory so are any other Christian holidays, so Lea puzzling over what the hell does a rabbit have to do with Jesus was a really entertaining indulgence. also headcanon birthdays for characters. Riku is a pretty textbook Scorpio, if you ask me. any guesses on Kairi and Lea?
> 
> also, getting into the culture of DI in general has been a super fun experiment. since we never really get to see anything beyond the play island, it's hard to gauge what sort of society it is. the most we get is the scene where Kairi chats with Selphie and then collapses in KH2. we can see there's a town on some sort of either larger island or mainland, we don't meet any other people from that world, either, besides the kids, so i got to get extra creative. since Sora and Riku (and Kairi, even tho she's technically from another world) all have Japanese names, i thought it'd be neat to work in some Japanese-style festivals and give them a Polyneisan islandy feel. but the town we briefly see in KH2 looks kind of quaint European countryside (it even looks like maybe there's a church), so i got the idea to give them kind of a blended culture. and with that, of course, comes a bit of tension. the next few chapters will explore DI culture more, so i hope you guys enjoy my shameless headcanon theatre!
> 
> thank you as always for sticking with this massive beast of a story. i'm so glad you've all come along for this ride, and i hope you'll hang around as it continues. especially thank you to those of you who take the time to leave a comment, it makes my whole day. as a small reward for being awesome, the first reader to correctly name the inspiration for all three of Kairi's movie posters in a comment will get a sketch of their KH fave. READY GO.
> 
> and small footnote: please consider helping [support](http://kawree.dreamwidth.org/447069.html) my work!


	34. Mother Knows Best

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lea discovers that social norms on the Destiny Islands are not always what they seem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a deleted scene that goes with this chapter! It goes between 33 and 34 and is full-chapter length, it was cut from the story mostly for flow reasons. Please go [here](http://kawree.dreamwidth.org/447069.html) to find out how you can read it!

Riku would never understand why everyone made such a big deal about his birthday. It was just a day like any other day--it wasn't like he _remembered_ being born, he hadn't really done anything. If anything, his _mother_ should have been the one being celebrated, since from what he knew about childbirth, it was a significant undertaking. Either way, he felt no different today, at eighteen, than he had yesterday, at seventeen. For that matter, he didn't understand why so many individual birthdays had to be made an _extra_ big deal! There were special parties for when children turned both five and seven years old--a span of time he hardly thought was remarkable--and then a festival for when they turned ten, as well! After that, there was the celebration for turning sixteen, thanks to the mainlanders, and then _another_ big deal for Shutsugen two years later. Really, Shutsugen was the only one that made much sense to him, since that was the day when you became an adult. Or, well... sixteen, for mainlanders, he guessed made enough sense, for the same reasons. Still, he didn't see the need for _five_ big celebrations before one even lived a quarter of their expected lifespan--it just seemed extravagant! It was no longer common for children to not survive to their fifth year, so the festival for five year olds was pointless, and there was nothing remarkable about turning seven or ten, they were just considered lucky numbers!

Mostly, Riku just hated being the center of attention. Certainly he was competitive and liked to boast when he won something, but you didn't _win_ birthdays. It was just a bunch of people making a big deal that you had existed for another year! Maybe birthdays had been celebrated more in the old days, when life had been harder and without all the luxuries of living in the present, when surviving through one more year _meant_ something, but up until two years ago, Riku had never done anything remarkable. He hadn't _survived_ anything, so he didn't understand why still being alive one year later was something that warranted a party. There were much more important things he could have been doing right now, but no, his mother was insisting that he cut vegetables into pretty shapes for the food platters that were going to be served to all of the guests who would fill his home later. _Ugh_ , this was such a waste of time.

He finished carving another radish into the shape of a rose, setting it aside, and then paused when he felt eyes on him. He turned, startled, then relaxed when he saw Lea leaning in the kitchen entryway, his arms folded over his chest and an impressed sort of look on his face. Riku glowered.

"What?" he asked tersely. "Haven't you ever seen vegetable flowers before?"

Lea chuckled and pushed away from the doorway. "I've never seen anyone make twenty of them in less than fifteen minutes," he admitted, gesturing at the little army of radish roses at the edge of the cutting board. Riku gawped at him.

"Y-you were standing there for fifteen minutes?" he cried, looking alarmed. 

"Thereabout," Lea said, shrugging one shoulder. "You were in the _zone_."

He'd had no idea Lea had even been nearby! He was seriously losing his edge; he was definitely going to have to work on honing his senses more. Lea was an ex-assassin, sure, but he hadn't even been sneaking up on him on purpose. If someone had tried to make a stealth attack, he would never have seen it coming!

This was unacceptable. They had no idea how many agents Xehanort had recruited to his side, what if someone was watching them and reporting back? What if Xehanort had been kept up to date on all of their training? What if Xehanort _knew_ he wasn't so sharp on his game as he had been before? What if Xehanort had found out about the _train_ system?? How could he have been so careless as to let his senses grow so dull?

He jerked out of his horrified trance when Lea snapped his fingers in front of his nose, flinching reflexively and then setting the knife down on the cutting board with a scowl.

"You okay?" Lea asked. "I get being in the radish rose zone, but where did you go, just then?"

"No place," Riku insisted, giving a huff and turning back to his vegetables. "Look, I've got a lot of work to do, so if you're just here to make fun of me, I don't have time."

Lea looked sincerely hurt by the curtness of his tone, and Riku sighed, but said nothing. He didn't have time to feel guilty right now. He just wanted to finish cutting up these stupid radishes and get this whole stupid festival over with.

"I wasn't making fun, for the record," Lea said, moving across the kitchen and grabbing one of the chairs from the little dining nook. He dragged the chair over beside Riku again and sat down backwards, resting his arms on the back and his chin on his arms. "I mean, okay, maybe cutting vegetables isn't going to win you the local talent competition, but it's still kinda neat." He shook his head. "I dunno why you always default to 'Lea is gonna laugh at me', in the first place," he said then, pouting a little. "Seems like every time I learn something new about you, you just expect me to think it's stupid or hilarious--do you really think I'm that much of a jerk? 'Cuz I'm sorry if I still radiate jackass vibes or something, but that's not how I roll anymore."

Riku paused, then sighed heavily and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, okay?" he said, staring at the knife instead of at Lea. "No, it... it isn't that I actually think you're that much of a jerk."

"Oh, so only a little bit of a jerk, then."

Riku snorted. "Well, you _are_ still a _little_ bit of a jerk," he said, and Lea just grinned, like it had been his plan the whole time just to make him laugh. ... Had it? Lea _was_ pretty good at making him laugh. --Ugh, that wasn't the point right now. He shook his head again. "I'm just super stressed out right now," he admitted, nodding his head back toward the sitting room off the kitchen where his mother was on the phone with one of the neighbors, eagerly discussing some exciting new way to make his life difficult, he was sure. "My mom is making a big huge deal out of something that really isn't that important," he said, "and she always puts all this pressure on me when stuff like this comes up, so I get..."

"Tetchy," Lea provided, and Riku furrowed his brow. "Short-tempered and irritable," he explained, and Riku just sighed. There he went with the vocabulary guru thing again.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," he said.

Lea hummed in thought then, lolling his head back and forth on his arms. "You seem awful... intolerable of your ma," he said, and though his tone was completely benign, Riku stiffened anyway. He knew Lea didn't really know, knew that Lea had only seen his mother at her best, but it still felt like an accusation, and he struggled a moment to fight down the urge to snap at him.

"My mom likes you," he said carefully, focusing on the radishes again. "She's friendly with you because she likes that I have a friend who's older and smarter and can keep an eye on me when she can't." He paused and glanced at Lea when the redhead looked puzzled. "She's super overprotective--you might have noticed it a little, when I was sick. She gets fussy and overbearing, and I can't stand it. I'm not a _kid_ anymore, but she always treats me like one, because I'll always be the baby of the family." He scowled back at the radish, making another neat slice into the dark red skin. "When my brother was my age, he already had a full time job and was on reserve with the military, and she never fussed over him for it, but here I am, doing things that as far as she knows are way less dangerous than naval or coast guard drills, and she freaks out when I catch a _cold_."

"Riku, she's your _mother_ ," Lea chuckled. "That's what mothers do, they worry about their kids."

Once again, Riku had to tamp down the reflexive urge to snap at him. "Not the way mine does," he said tersely. "She treats me like I'm some kind of glass statue or something, like I can't take care of myself at all. It's _humiliating_. If she knew what I'd actually been up to for the past couple of years, she would literally never let me leave the house again."

"Would you rather she just didn't care at all?" Lea asked, still looking puzzled. Riku knew, logically, that Lea wasn't goading him on purpose, that he wasn't arguing just for the sake of arguing and he legitimately didn't understand just how high-handed his family truly was, but he was fast losing patience with trying to explain it to him.

"You really don't see it, do you?" he asked, and Lea just gave him a puzzled frown. Riku sighed. "And they say _I_ need glasses."

Lea clapped a hand over his chest and looked wounded. "Ouch, hey, come on, I have feelings that can be hurt now, remember?"

"Riku, honey, how are those radishes coming?" Hanako asked then from the ingress to the sitting room, the cordless phone in one hand. "Neighbors are going to be arriving in about an hour, and I want everything to be just perfect."

Riku decided maybe it was time to just _show_ Lea what he was talking about.

He gave a visible start, a slightly exaggerated gasp, as though her voice had surprised him terribly, and neatly nicked the pad of one finger with the knife he'd been using on the vegetables. " _Ow_!" he gasped, and shot Lea a quick glance out of the corner of his eye so that the older man would know this was an act, before dropping the knife to press against his cut finger, encouraging the spot of blood to well visibly. The knife clattered into the sink with a satisfyingly dramatic noise, and Hanako immediately leapt into action.

"Oh, God, Riku, honey, are you all right?" she asked sharply, tossing the phone onto the little dining table and nearly sending Lea toppling backward as he jumped up out of his chair to move out of the way. "Here, let me see."

"M-Mom it's fine," Riku protested, trying to squirm away, but Hanako took his wrist firmly so she could look at the obviously grave injury he had sustained. "Mom it's just a _scratch_!"

"Nonsense," Hanako said, shaking her head. "Look, you're _bleeding_! Come on, we've got to clean this immediately--oh, I hope it doesn't get infected! That would ruin the entire celebration!"

Riku tossed Lea a long-suffering look-- _I hope you appreciate what I am now being forced to endure for the sake of demonstration_ \--as Hanako all but dragged him out of the kitchen and down the hall toward the bathroom.

"Lea, dear, would you finish up with those vegetables?" she called, and Lea jumped like he'd been poked in the small of the back.

"Wh--me?" He looked at the cutting board, then looked desperately at Riku. "I-I dunno how to--"

"Just copy what Riku did, it's so easy!" she said, turning the corner, and the last thing Riku saw before Lea was out of sight was a look of utter and complete forsaken betrayal.

Well, maybe it served him a _little_ right, for insisting he was being so unfair to his mother.

"Mom, _really_ ," Riku groaned as she dragged him into the bathroom. He pulled his hand away from her and looked at her sullenly. "You're completely overreacting! I barely broke the skin!"

"Honey, you know as well as I do that even a shallow cut can be a breeding ground for infection," she said, rummaging through the medicine cabinet and pulling out a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a box of bandages. "Especially a cut on your _hand_! What if you touch something filthy? No, we've _got_ to cover that up."

"Are you sure a bandage won't completely ruin how I look in my festival garb?" he asked wryly, and Hanako gave him a stern look.

"Riku, you _know_ how important this festival is," she said, and Riku bit back a snarl.

"To _you_!" he countered. " _You're_ the one who's making this like fifty times more of a big deal than it has to be!"

"It's tradition," Hanako insisted, reaching for Riku's hand again, and he figured it was easier to just let her bandage this terrible wound for him rather than fight her on it. She pulled his hand under the warm water from the tap and washed the blood away, then handed him a towel to dry it off. "Everyone on the block has been looking forward to your Shutsugen."

"You mean looking forward to getting to eat free fancy food in our big fancy backyard," Riku grumbled. "I hardly know any of these people, you really think any of them are coming to see _me_?"

Hanako reached for his hand again and, using a cotton swab, she wiped the tiny cut with a bit of alcohol, then blew on it to dry it.

"Honey, are you angry because your brother couldn't make it home for this?" she asked then, unwrapping the bandage and centering the soft pad carefully over his fingertip. "You know he'll be home next week to make up for it, and he's very sorry he's going to be late."

"It has nothing to _do_ with Aki," Riku said sharply, shaking his head. Really, how could she think this was about _Aki_? She seemed to think _everything_ was about Aki!

"Then why are you so upset about this?" Hanako asked, wrapping the bandage around his finger and then bringing it to her face to press a kiss to it. Riku fought the urge to groan.

"I just don't see the point," he said, shaking his head. "It's just a birthday, there's no reason to make such a big _deal_."

"This is an important birthday, though," Hanako said, putting the bandages and alcohol back into the medicine cabinet. "You're an _adult_ now."

Riku gave her a sour look, holding up his bandaged finger. "Then could you maybe start _treating_ me like one?" he snapped, 

Hanako regarded him fiercely, her perfect smile looking forced and ready to falter. "Honey, I will start treating you like an adult when you stop _acting_ like a child," she said, touching her fingertips beneath his chin. "Today is important, and I won't have you making a scene and embarrassing me in front of everyone."

Riku gave a grating sigh, avoiding his mother's eye. Even on his birthday, which she insisted was such a big deal and a milestone for him, she had to make everything about herself. Or Aki. Or anything else that meant he was doing something wrong. He couldn't hate his mother, but he hated the way she always treated him like a child, put him through these these ridiculous paces. Why couldn't she just let him be himself? Why couldn't she understand that the life she wanted for him wasn't the life he wanted to lead?

"It's bad enough you talk back to me in front of your friend," she said, "but we've been planning this festival for weeks. I need you to behave. Can you do that?"

"Yes," Riku said, mostly under his breath, still avoiding her eye, and Hanako lifted her eyebrows sharply.

"Excuse me? I can't hear you when you mumble."

"Yes _ma'am_ ," he repeated, shoulders hunched, and before Hanako could find something else wrong with his response, he turned on his heel and slinked out of the bathroom and back down the hallway.

He really couldn't believe his family sometimes. Just because he was the baby of the family didn't mean he was a _baby_. His brother had _never_ been treated this way, had never been handled with these kid gloves, even when he had been much younger than Riku was now. It was infuriating, and what was worse was that they simply didn't seem to understand _why_ it made him so angry. He glared down at the bandage around his finger, then hefted a sigh and returned to the kitchen to finish making those radish roses. Light knew the world would come to an end if the vegetable platters weren't perfect.

"Wh...?"

As he stepped into the kitchen, though, he was surprised to see Lea standing at the counter sort of hunched over the cutting board, his back to the entryway. Wait, was he seriously...?

"Lea, what are you doing?" he asked, stepping into the kitchen and approaching him at the cutting board. His eyes widened when he saw that in addition to the nice neat rows of roses he had sliced up earlier, there were now three somewhat lopsided attempts at roses, something that resembled a nautilus shell, and several things that could only be described as Creatures Distantly Related to Octopi. "Lea... what are you _doing_?" he asked again, not sure if he should be horrified or just laugh.

"W-well... your ma said to finish up," he said, looking a little sheepish, "but the roses I tried to make didn't look right, so I tried something different. The spiral didn't really look right either, but..." He held up his latest octopedal monstrosity. "These little guys look pretty cool, right?"

Riku stared at the radish creature, then looked up at Lea's face, which was alight with something very much like pride, despite the absurdity of what he was showing him. Riku's mother may have driven him up the wall, but somehow, Lea always seemed able to make him laugh, and laugh he did. He took the little radishpus from Lea's palm and held it a moment, turning it between his fingers, laughing helplessly. The funniest part of it was that it _was_ kind of impressive; it actually had little individual legs, and he had carved a big smiley face into the top.

"My mother asks for roses, and you make happy horror-terrors," he snorted, shaking his head. "Somehow, I don't know why I would have expected anything different."

Lea set the knife down on the cutting board and gave Riku a contrite look.

"Hey, I'm sorry, okay?" he asked. "I didn't mean to be a pain in the ass... I didn't know things were so weird, you know? Your ma's always been nice to me, so I just assumed that was how she was with everybody."

"That _is_ how she is with everybody," Riku said, picking up the knife again and retrieving one of the remaining radishes. "She's always worried about appearances, she always wants to make a good impression on people, that's _why_ she's so nice to everybody..." He sighed. "And why she's so ridiculous with me. She wants me to be the perfect son, to do what tradition demands I do, and to make everyone proud so she looks like Mother of the Year. So when I go and disappear for two years, she has to make up some acceptable reason why I'm gone instead of tending to my duties here. And now that I'm back, she expects me to work twice as hard making up for lost time."

"Lost time doing what?" Lea asked, grabbing his chair and sitting back down. "You make it sound like you had some weird mundane destiny to fulfill here that Xehanort so rudely interrupted."

"I _did_ ," Riku assured him, neatly slicing up another radish into an elegant rose, and Lea looked surprised. Riku sighed. He had rather hoped to just never air this part of his life, but now that the can had been opened, he figured he really had no choice but to spill these beans. "So these islands have kind of a weird history," he began, and Lea sat up very straight and raised his hand, like he had the right answer or something.

"Ooh, I know!" he said brightly. "Kairi told me about it, how the mainlanders showed up and wanted to take control of the islands, so you guys had to kind of meet in the middle, and that's why you have like two of everything."

Riku puffed a soft laugh. "I guess that's... a very abridged way of putting it, yeah," he said, setting the radish aside and then picking up another. "Basically, when the mainlanders came and tried to take the islands, and we refused to just hand them over, the ultimate decision was to have mainlander presence here on the islands, and islander presence on the mainland. That way things are balanced and no one location completely takes over the other and so on."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense," Lea said, reaching for a discarded slice of radish and popping it into his mouth, then making a startled noise accompanied by a horrid face and removing it from his mouth instantly, tossing it into the sink. "Eugh, people _eat_ those?"

"They're decorative, Lea."

"What a waste of a vegetable, sheesh." He flicked his tongue out of his mouth a few times like he could remove the residual radish taste that way, then focused on Riku again. "What's all that got to do with you, though?" he asked, getting back to the topic at hand.

"You may have noticed that my family is pretty well-off," Riku said, gesturing at the large kitchen and indicating the house in general.

"I may have, sure," said Lea, grabbing another radish and tossing it between his hands.

"Back before the mainlanders joined us," he said, choosing his words carefully, "the islands were run by a sort of tribal hierarchy." He set another rose in the lineup and picked up the next radish. "There was a group of elders who advised a chief, who then made decisions that affected everyone on the island."

"Makes sense," Lea said, and then paused. Riku could practically hear the gears in his head turning as he connected the dots. "Dude, no way, your ancestor was the chief or something?" he asked, looking both surprised and delighted. "Should I bow or something, Your Eminence?"

Riku gave him a stern look. "Would you cut that out?" he said. "See, this is exactly why I haven't told you about this before, I knew you'd make fun of me."

"Riku, Riku, chill out," Lea said, waving the radish in his hand at him. "I'm _not_ making fun of you, okay? I think it's pretty neat, honestly." He shook his head. "I think maybe you just… are misinterpreting my reactions to stuff a lot of the time."

Riku lifted one eyebrow dubiously.

"I tease the people I care about, because it's easier for me than saying, 'hey, you're an important part of my life and I appreciate you a lot', okay?" Lea's eyes sort of skirted away, the way they did when he was feeling awkward or unsure of himself, which was actually distinctly different from the way he avoided eye contact when he was being dishonest or insincere, Riku had noticed. "I'm bad at the whole touchy feely I Care About My Friends thing, yanno? So I just kinda… give you guys a hard time, but I mean it like as a sign of affection, so…"

Riku blinked at him, a bit surprised by the sudden bout of honesty. Lea didn't talk about himself often, and when he did it was usually brief and in joke form, but Riku guessed he hadn't ever really stopped to consider that the times Lea _had_ poked fun at him, it had always been with a kind or playful look on his face, and as soon as Riku had given any indication that something was a genuinely sore subject, he had stopped and never brought it up again. Maybe he _had_ misinterpreted.

"If it bugs ya that much, I'll stop," Lea said, meeting his eye again and looking a little apologetic, "but you sass back half the time anyway, so I thought it was okay."

Riku took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then sighed gustily and shook his head.

"N-no, it's okay," he said. "I probably do overreact sometimes." He made a face. "My brother used to pick on me all the time when we were kids, pointing out little things he knew I was self-conscious about, or reminding me of stuff he could do better than me."

"Wow, your brother sounds like a jackass," Lea remarked, and Riku snickered.

"When we first met, back before you got your heart back, I thought you and Aki would probably get along really well," Riku said, and Lea looked comically indignant. "I was wrong, though," he admitted. "After getting to know you, I think you'd probably want to punch him in the nose."

"Oh, so now I'm not a jackass, I'm just a violent thug, I see how it is."

Riku flicked a radish shaving at him.

"Quit putting words in my mouth!" he complained, laughing. 

"Then promise you're not mad at me!"

It was surprisingly hard to stay peeved with Lea, he was finding. Probably because even though he was a bit prone to saying the wrong thing or being too blunt sometimes, he never actually meant any harm, and always sought to reconcile. Riku had to give him some credit, at least--when you were without your heart for ten years, it must have been difficult to get back into the swing of even _having_ feelings, let alone how to gauge those of others.

"All right, okay, I understand now," Riku said, gesturing vaguely with one hand. "You tease because you care."

"And if I say something seriously wrong, just call me out, okay?" he said, resting his chin on his arms on the back of the chair again. "I know words can cut just as deeply as blades, and that's never my intention with you, got it memorized?"

Riku smiled a little.

"Memorized," he said. "Sorry for jumping to conclusions. I'm not mad, okay?"

"Well, it seems like this is a pretty stressful day for you, so i think I can give you a pass," Lea said with a bit of a grin. "So, you're descended from the old chiefs, and…?"

"And," Riku said, reaching for the last radish Lea was still rolling around in his hand, "despite the fact that most of the ancient traditions have been phased out with modern technology and stuff, some things are still in place. One of those things is the presence of an influential family from both cultures on both the islands and on the mainland."

Lea tilted his head. "And?" he prompted again, looking like he had a guess as to what came next but wasn't ready to venture it.

" _And_ ," Riku said, focusing on the radish a moment and twisting the paring knife carefully, "since mine is one of the oldest and most influential native families left, that means we're the lucky family that gets to send the eldest son to the mainland."

There was a beat of silence, and Lea looked as though he was trying to solve this equation, but hadn't been given all the necessary values to do so yet.

"Wouldn't that be your _brother_ , though?" he asked carefully. "You're the _second_ son, right?"

Riku nodded, flicking a radish shaving into the sink. "I am," he said, "which means my brother goes to the mainland, and I stay here on the islands to make sure our way of life gets carried onto the next generation." He hesitated, then sighed, giving Lea a deflated look. "Trouble is… that isn't what I want," he said. "I love these islands, but… I'm not really a stay at home and be traditional sort of person, you know?"

"Gee, I hadn't noticed," Lea said, his grin pulling up sharply to one side.

Riku frowned at the radish in his hand, then decided to add a little more detail with the knife.

"So I'm this huge disappointment to my parents," he said, his tone a bit dark, "because I want to live my life the way _I_ want to live my life, instead of the way our family has lived for so many generations."

"Well, maybe it's just time for some new traditions," Lea said, shrugging his shoulders. "Just because you don't want to stay here and do… whatever it is that you islandfolk traditionally do, that doesn't mean you're abandoning who you are, does it?"

Riku laughed nervously. "Somehow I don't think betraying your friends and assisting in the destruction of the world is a tradition that's going to catch on."

"That isn't what I meant and you know it." Lea sat up a bit and lifted his chin from his arms. "Riku, I think it's way more important to be true to _you_ than to adhere rigidly to traditions from a time that isn't even really _relevant_ anymore," he said. "Sure, tradition is important, history is important, but times change, people advance, progress happens, and it isn't worth it to not live your life just to preserve 'The Way Things Were'." This was punctuated with air quotes, and Riku felt a little torn.

On one hand, he knew Lea was _right_ , at least to some extent. He didn't want to just abandon the history of his islands and the people who founded them so many generations ago, but nothing his parents said or did, no amount of their disappointment, would make him _want_ to be the son _they_ wanted him to be. Maybe Aki was satisfied being the island liaison on the mainland, living in a chic apartment in the city center (well, as chic as a small seaside town got, anyway) running the cultural festivals in the city and and overseeing the native exhibits at the museum, but that wasn't the life Riku wanted. Especially now that he'd seen so many other worlds, now that he knew there were so many _more_ worlds than even that, this one seemed smaller than ever. He certainly didn't plan to just abandon the islands and leave, never to return, but the thought of living out the rest of his days here, on these tiny islands on this tiny world, was just unbearable, and made him feel like the walls were closing in around him.

"I don't have my wallet," Lea piped up then, "so remind me to give you some munny for your thoughts later?"

Riku rolled his eyes. "I can see this is going to be a running joke," he said, and rested the knife on the cutting board. "You know there's an arranged marriage all set up for me?" he asked dryly, and Lea looked utterly confused.

"An arranged marriage?" he asked, as though Riku were speaking another language. "Like… somebody decides who you're gonna spend the rest of your life with… _for_ you?"

Riku snorted. "Yes, that's literally what that means."

Lea shook his head fiercely. "Okay, _that's_ a tradition that needs to be thrown out like… right now." He seemed very adamant about this. "That's totally unfair. Nobody should be able to dictate who you love, that's bull," he said, scowling. "Who is it? You're not gonna actually go through with it, are you?"

It was a little touching, Riku thought, the way Lea seemed to hold the idea of love in such high regard. He didn't know much about Radiant Garden or its culture, but _something_ had ingrained it deeply into Lea's heart that love mattered more than most things, even more than tradition and family honor. It was bolstering, in any case.

He grinned. "You really want to know?" he asked, and Lea nodded eagerly. Riku set the knife down on the cutting board and leaned against the counter. "I'm to wed the mayor's daughter," he said in a dramatic tone, "to further the union between the two peoples."

The gears in Lea's head were turning again, and then his eyes snapped open wide.

"Wait, wait," he said, waving both hands, "you and _Kairi_?"

"Yup."

"But that's kind of what you _do_ want, isn't it?" Lea asked, looking utterly flabbergasted. "I mean, you like her a lot, right?"

"I do," Riku admitted, surprised at how easy it was to say it now, here, to Lea in his kitchen.

"But?"

"But I don't think it's fair to either of us to just _decide_ we're going to get married," he said, shaking his head. "I'm against the idea on principle, you know?"

"Does Kairi know about it?" Lea asked.

"Of course she does," Riku said. "Our parents were really happy when we became friends shortly after she arrived here on the islands. The whole reason the mayor adopted her when she just turned up here mysteriously was because he hadn't had any children yet. So when Kairi showed up, he decided that adopting her was the best way to make sure there would still be a marriage, and he knew that was the way things have been done for the past three or four generations, so it just seemed more logical than leaving it to chance."

"Is it really a standing tradition?" Lea asked, tilting his head. "So, your parents...?"

Riku sighed. "My father is the native islander," he said. "My mother was the mayor's daughter, which is why she's so... uppity, I guess." He gestured around them. "This arrangement is actually why my family has this big house. My great-grandmother was living in a small house at the edge of town when the mayor's son set his eyes on her. He petitioned the idea of an arranged marriage to his father and commissioned this house as a wedding present, so that her family could continue to live in luxury right next door."

Lea looked dubious. "That's nice and all," he said, "but... did your great-gran _want_ to marry the mayor's son?"

Riku sighed. "No, that's why the arrangement thing was set up," he said, shaking his head. "He had attempted to court her several times, but she had always turned him down. Once the idea of the arrangement was pitched to both families, though, everyone seemed eager to move forward, to really cement the union between the cultures in a way that hadn't ever been achieved in the past."

"Bet your great-gran wasn't too happy about that, huh?"

"Not at all," Riku said, frowning. "She thought the mayor's son was arrogant and shallow, and she never really learned to love him. She went along with the whole thing because it was expected of her, but she carried quite a bit of resentment to the end of her life for it. She didn't hate him, but she thought he was selfish for forcing her into the marriage, and that's why I've never supported the idea, despite my feelings for Kairi."

He didn't want to admit that there was more to his feelings now than there had been even a few months ago. He still wasn't sure what to make of this budding affection he was feeling for Lea recently, but he knew he couldn't just ignore it. Ignoring his heart in lieu of doing what he thought was smarter or what he was told was right had gotten him into more than enough trouble in the past, and he wasn't going to make the same mistake again. He just... needed to find the right situation in which to bring this to the table, and today was definitely _not_ ideal.

"I could never do that to her, I could never just... strongarm her that way, into a marriage that was decided _for_ us," he said, and Lea tilted his head.

"Even if she had no complaints?" he asked, and Riku felt his cheeks heat up.

"L-look, that isn't the point," he said. "All I'm saying is, there's... a lot about my life here that I was never really too happy about, but up until a couple of years ago, I thought there was nothing I could do to change things. Now, though..." He he hefted a sigh. "Now there's something in my life that is more important than any of the traditions here, but I'm still expected to adhere to them, because nobody _knows_ about it." He wrung his hands a little. "Everything I've been training for, all the hard work, the missions, the magic... this is something that only _I_ can do, something I _have_ to do, and I can't even tell anybody about it."

Well, that wasn't entirely true. He wasn't the _only_ one who could do it--Sora, Kairi, and Lea were all training with the Keyblade as well, and they were all just as intent as he was to defeat Xehanort. But the point remained that somehow the traditions of this little world paled in comparison to saving the whole universe from the Darkness that Xehanort could bring upon it. How was he supposed to explain that to his parents, though? His parents, who didn't believe in anything they couldn't see, who didn't think that he was even capable of walking into town by himself, let alone to a dozen other worlds?

"Nobody can live your life for you, Riku," Lea said after a moment's quiet, and he met the older man's gaze with a frown. "If you don't like what this world has to offer you, you're under no obligation to stay here and just accept it."

"Tell that to my parents," Riku muttered, and Lea frowned sternly.

"I _will_ ," he said, and Riku blinked.

"Huh?"

"Look, I may not be able to sympathize with your situation--I had a pretty awesome family who supported me and the choices I made." He made a face. "Okay _most_ of the choices I made."

Riku made a mental note to ask him what _that_ was all about sometime later.

"But I can _empathize_ ," Lea said, and Riku furrowed his brow. There he went again, using fancy words. "Look, I of all people know how it feels to be expected to do something you don't want to do. I was always the one who got stuck with the icky orders, when I worked for the Organization, and do you know why?"

Riku shook his head.

"Because I didn't have a choice," he said. "If I disobeyed orders, I would have been eliminated. Erased. Turned into a Dusk. Maybe worse."

"Could... could Xemnas really _do_ that?" he asked, looking appalled, and Lea shrugged one shoulder.

"I honestly dunno," he admitted, "but I wasn't interested in finding out, yah?" He sat up a little straighter. "The point is, eventually, even fear of destruction wasn't enough to make me continue to do Xemnas' bidding. There's always a breaking point." Lea shook his head. "If this isn't the life you want... this isn't the life you have to live. You said it yourself: you're not a kid anymore, so what are you afraid of?"

Riku paused for a long moment. What _was_ he afraid of? His parents were already disappointed in him. His brother already had no respect for him. His fellow islanders thought he was weird, reclusive, they didn't dare guess at what he'd been doing for the time he'd been missing. The only friends he had here were Sora and Kairi, maybe Selphie, Wakka, Tidus in a pinch... What was he so afraid to lose that he just kept blindly adhering to these traditions? What was so important here that he would rather live a caged life than be free?

He had no answers, but Lea had raised a good point, a point he was going to have to think on. Later, though. For the moment, the preparations for Shutsugen were too far along for him to just back out now. He couldn't very well just waste all of the food his mother had ordered from the catering service.

"I don't know," he said, lowering his eyes, his brow furrowed, "but... you're right about one thing."

"Only one?" Lea's grin was just as apparent in his tone as it was on his face.

"I'm the only one who can live my life," he said with a nod, giving Riku a little smile, "and... maybe it's time I really sat down and figured out what I want that life to be." He couldn't continue leading this dual life, after all. He couldn't be a Keyblade master and also keep pretending to be the dutiful second son of his family. He knew which life he would choose, without a doubt, but he needed to figure out how to make it happen without tearing his family and the traditional norms of this world apart.

That would take time, and right now everything was too stressful and harried for that. It would have to wait until after the festivities, at the very least.

He gave Lea a bit of a smile, that flutter of affection beating its wings a bit harder in that moment. He had spent a long time feeling like nobody understood him, like no one got why he was the way he was, and no one ever would, but it seemed that he'd been wrong. This was far from the first time Lea had struck a chord in him with his words, and he had a very strong feeling it wouldn't be the last. But, like everything else, that was a consideration for another day. For now, his mother needed a cutting board full of radishes in the back yard, and he supposed he could be the dutiful son long enough to let her have this pointless birthday celebration.

Turning, Riku placed the last radish onto the cutting board and then picked it up to take it to the back patio.

"Thanks, Lea," he said, his smile a bit tired, but genuine all the same. "Sometimes you're actually kinda smart."

"Only sometimes?" Lea looked exaggeratedly offended. "Only _kinda_?"

Riku picked up that final radish again and rested it carefully on Lea's arm. It was carved like the little octopus creatures Lea had made, but with a bit more finesse, and Lea laughed softly.

"Thanks, I'll treasure him," he snorted. "What time does the party start?"

"In about an hour and a half," Riku said with a gusty sigh. "My mom is gonna stuff me in some fancy traditional outfit and I'm gonna look ridiculous, so if you and Kairi want to just be _really_ late or not show up at all, that's fine with me."

"Are you kidding?" Lea asked, twisting Riku's radish octopus in his fingers. "I'd _never_ miss a great blackmail opportunity, who do you think I am?"

Riku just laughed and shook his head, moving toward the back patio again. Blackmail or no, he guessed that if Kairi and Lea were there, maybe this wouldn't be the _worst_ birthday ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More shameless world building whoooo! The birthday festivals are loosely based on Japanese festivals for when kids turn 3, 5, and 7, which is adorable because you get to see little kids dressed in kimono, but I always feel a little bad for the kids who don't understand what's happening and are just overstimulated and upset. Also, as for my reasons for portraying g Riku's family this way, it always struck me as a little odd that in KH1 he specifically pointed out to Sora that they might never see their parents again, and he just looked so _happy_ about it I was like, who hurt you, child? Everyone loves a tiger mom, right? 8')
> 
> Thanks for reading, and happy Blow Shit Up Because Freedom weekend to my fellow 'Murricans! Also I know I owe a couple of promised doodles, I'm hoping to finish them up over the weekend. June has been kind of nuts for me orz


	35. Throw Down the Mattock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Riku dances like no one is watching.

"I think I did this wrong..."

Lea stepped out of the bathroom and sort of flapped his arms at his sides, the long sleeves of the strange garment slapping against his hips.

"Is it supposed to be all... bunchy?" he asked, sticking his arms out straight away from his body to let the sleeves fall loose. They were so _long_! And not even like the normal kind of long, they didn't fall down over his hands the way his father's sweaters had; these sleeves were long in the _other direction_ , which was utterly bizarre. He felt like he was wearing flags on his elbows. More than that, the shirt was designed like a robe, he found--you didn't pull it down over your head, you wrapped it around yourself like a crepe, rather like the clothes he had worn in the Land of Dragons, and he'd had a helluva time even getting it to stay closed while he tried to tie the sash.

"Oh, good Lord, Lea," Kairi gasped, covering her mouth with one hand as she exited her room and stepped into the hall, and he knew in an instant he'd done _something_ wrong. She hurried over to him and sort of tugged at the neckline of the shirt where it was wrapped diagonally across his chest. "You... did it backwards," she said, and Lea tilted his head.

"Does it matter?" he asked, genuinely puzzled.

"Well, right over left is for funerals," she said, and Lea barked a laugh.

"Funerals?" He blinked, looking down at his chest, and then pressed both hands over his heart.

"As in, for your _own_ funeral," Kairi said, looking terribly concerned now. "Like that's how you wrap someone's burial robes."

He laughed again, though there was something a little desperate about it this time. "Well, hey, that's appropriate, right?" He _had_ died, after all.

"No it is _not_!" Kairi insisted, dragging him toward her bedroom in an effort to fix this apparent travesty, and he wasn't sure if she was offended by the idea that he was gently making fun of the culture, or because he actually _had_ died and he was making light of it.

He hadn't expected to be stuffed into any traditional clothing in the first place, but Kairi had insisted that if they were going to make an appearance at Riku's Shutsugen, then they needed to be dressed for the occasion, and she had promptly raided her father's closet. He guessed it made sense enough--Riku had already impressed upon him that his mother was very concerned with appearances, and he seemed so stressed out about the whole thing as it was. The last thing Lea wanted to do was show up underdressed and embarrass anyone. Or everyone. Or himself? Or whatever. He didn't embarrass easily, not really--he was much more likely to just laugh at himself and move on--but he didn't want to do anything to add to Riku's stress levels today. They were already through the roof, so far as he could tell.

"Lea, you... really can't wear it like that," Kairi said, a hand pressed against her chin as he turned this way and that in front of the full-length mirror in the corner of her bedroom.

"How come?" he asked cheekily, waving his arms to make the sleeves flap against his sides again. "I mean, _I_ obviously didn't know any better."

"Yeah, but _I_ do," she insisted, gathering up a handful of one of his sleeves to arrest his twisting movement. Frustrated, she blew a sigh up toward her hairline. "Actually, maybe it'd serve Riku's mom right, if something was Not Quite Perfect and she had to deal with it." She giggled a bit deviously. "She would never make a scene in public... it could be fun to watch her eye twitch."

Lea looked exaggeratedly shocked. "Why, _Princess_!" he gasped. "Is that a hint of _diabolique_ I detect in your tone?"

"Maybe a little," she admitted, one eyebrow arched sharply, and Lea grinned widely.

"The more I get to know you, Kairi, the more you keep surprising me. What _is_ this stuff, anyway?" he asked then, plucking at the long, flowy pants that he had somehow managed to tie over the weird robe shirt. "These pants might as well be a dress." He grinned at his reflection and smoothed both hands down his front. "I mean, I would clearly still rock a dress, but that isn't the point."

"It's just traditional island garb," she said, releasing the sleeve and turning her attention to the sash at his hips, which was a bit twisted. She gave it a yank, and he made a breathless sort of noise. "Sorry," she chuckled, and then patted his side. "The, uh... That shirt piece is called a basho. Traditionally they're made from the fibers of one of the native plants here on the islands, which is why the fabric feels so unusual."

"Yeah, it's a little stiff, and really light," Lea said, waving his arms again. "I guess that makes sense, since it can get pretty warm, wearing layers like this, huh?"

"Exactly," Kairi said with a nod, moving to stand in front of him again and scrutinizing his outfit. "The dress-pants are called hakama, and they're like a skirt because they were originally worn by native warriors on horseback, so they had to be wide and easy to move in."

"You guys have many horses, here?" he asked, trying to recall if he'd ever seen one, and Kairi laughed.

"Not really anymore," she said. "They used to run wild on a lot of the larger islands, but now there are only a few wild herds on the uninhabited ones. The rest were corralled up into like nature reserves and stuff."

"I've never ridden a horse," Lea admitted, frowning. "Is it that difficult?"

"Mm, not _difficult_ , necessarily," she said, "but they have really wide backs, so if your pants are too tight, it's gonna be pretty uncomfortable. The fabric is heavy and kind of stiff because it had to protect the warriors' legs from brush and thorny plants and stuff in the forested areas."

"Huh." Lea looked down at the wide pants and brushed his hand over the fabric, then pinched one of the pleats between his fingers. "And they're pleated because they're literal fancypants?"

Kairi snickered. "No, silly," she said. "There are seven pleats--five in front, two in back--to represent each of the seven values of the old island code."

"Is that like the pirate code?" Lea asked, a glint in his eye, and Kairi made a bit of a face.

"Doubt it," she said. "The values are valor, charity, integrity, civility, sincerity, fidelity, and honor, so... not very piratey."

"Not piratey at all," Lea said with a nod of his head. "Pretty Riku-y though."

Kairi laughed softly. "Yes, _very_ Riku-y."

Lea hiked up the bottoms of the hakama and wriggled his toes in the strange socks she'd given him--there was actually a section for his big toe that was separated from the rest of the sock, so he could wear thong sandals, he'd been told. It felt really strange to have that fabric between his toes, though, and wasn't it a huge faux pas to wear socks with sandals? He remembered Cid had been made fun of by some of the kids in Garden during the summer because he wore socks with his sandals, but he guessed if it was tradition here, he wasn't going to question it.

"You sure know a lot about the island customs," he noted, dropping the hem of the hakama and folding his arms over his chest, regarding her curiously. "Required reading for, ah..."--he waggled his eyebrows--"future engagements?"

No, that hadn't been a veiled arranged marriage pun at all.

Kairi quirked her mouth to one side.

"I see Riku's been regaling you with weird island rules, huh?" she asked, and sat down on the edge of her bed with a sigh.

"Yeah, kinda," he said, moving to sit beside her. "He didn't seem too enthused about the idea of having his future planned for him. What do _you_ think about it?"

Kairi frowned. "I don't think it's really fair," she admitted. "I mean, I care about Riku a lot, and... to be frank, if I have to marry someone, I mean... I could definitely do a lot worse, you know?"

"But?" he prodded, and she hefted a sigh.

"But I know it's not what he wants."

Lea canted his head. "And what do _you_ want?" he asked.

"I want... Riku to be happy," she said, scowling at her lap and then looking up at Lea with something like pain in her expression. "Ever since we were kids, he always wanted to know what else was out there, what was past the horizon. He was never satisfied just sitting around waiting for life to happen, he wanted to have an active hand in _making_ it happen." She shook her head and looked back at her lap, her brow furrowed. "I told you about how up until all of this stuff with Xehanort happened, I was fine just staying here on the islands. I knew that there was more to me than what I knew, that I had come from somewhere else, but it didn't really _matter_ to me back then, because I had people here who loved me. Sure, it would have been cool to see other worlds, I think if the opportunity had presented itself I would have taken it, but I never really _wanted_ anything more, because I thought I already had everything I needed." She hesitated. "But now..."

She trailed off into silence, and Lea remained quiet, knowing she was sorting out her thoughts. It was interesting, to him, to think about how much Xehanort had changed all of them, and not necessarily for the worse. Sure, he and Isa had lost their hearts. Sure, Sora and Riku and Kairi had all been manipulated and pitted against one another. Ultimately, though, he kind of had to wonder who they would be now otherwise. Would Riku have just been content to know that the horizon was unreachable and settled down to follow his ancestral destiny? Would Kairi have just given up on even wondering where she had come from? Would he himself have ever become anything more than just the obnoxious kid from the northwest district who had an annoying catch phrase? He certainly wasn't about to _thank_ Xehanort for what he had done, but he had to admit, the guy certainly knew how to illustrate necessity being the mother of invention.

"You're allowed to want what you want, you know?" he said after Kairi's silence stretched into an obvious inability to figure out what to say next. She looked at him, and he shrugged one shoulder. "Selfishness is an underrated virtue."

"Lea, selfishness _isn't_ a virtue."

"Ah, but maybe it _should_ be," he said, wagging a finger at her, and Kairi looked dubiously at him. "Well, think about it: we're all so busy trying to look good and do what's expected of us that we wind up being miserable. Riku has to choose between being something that he doesn't want to be in order to please his parents, or disappointing them and feeling too guilty to enjoy being who he actually _does_ want to be. I had to choose between doing the Organization's dirty work because it's what was expected of me, or just taking Roxas and _running_." His shoulders sagged. "In the end, I _wanted_ to go with Roxas when he left," he said. "I wanted to be the one _leading_ him to something better, but... it felt too selfish."

If he had gone with Roxas, they would have had to send someone _else_ to come after them... someone who wouldn't have hesitated to destroy them both. If he had gone with Roxas, no one would have been left behind to try and throw them off the trail. There was no way to know if going with him would have been safer for the both of them, if his presence would have stopped DiZ from ever getting Roxas into his clutches, but Lea tried to tell himself that even if he'd made the wrong choice, maybe he'd made it for the right reasons.

Kairi looked like she wasn't entirely convinced, and Lea waved a hand. He didn't expect her to understand, and he wasn't sure he was ready to try and explain that aspect of things, so maybe it was better for her to just think he was full of shit sometimes.

"No, I know," he said: "I _was_ selfish. I'm a really lousy example, but for lack of a better one... If I'd just felt like I was allowed to be selfish in the first place, I would have said screw the Organization and whatever obligations I felt I had to it, screw Saïx and the fact that he stopped caring about me years ago, I would have taken Roxas and we could have made a break for it, and... okay, yeah, that probably would have screwed _everything_ up, but that isn't the point."

Kairi chuckled and shook her head. "So what _is_ your point?"

"That maybe if selfishness _was_ allowed to be a virtue, in moderation, people wouldn't waste so much of their lives being unhappy because they're trying to live up to the expectations of others."

A look of contemplation crossed Kairi's face then, and she pressed a knuckle against her lower lip--a mannerism Lea had noticed she had in common with Riku. She quirked her lips to one side a bit, and then looked back up at him, her expression uncertain.

"I'm not sure I agree that selfishness is really a good thing, in and of itself," she said, "but I think I understand what you're trying to say. Maybe we need to reevaluate how we define selfishness, rather than just condemning anyone who does something they feel is right for _them_ , instead of what they're _told_ is right for them."

Lea nodded. "Yeah, something like that," he said, glad that even if their interpretations of the sentiment were a bit different, they seemed to be on the same page.

He reached over and planted a hand on her knee for just a moment, then got to his feet again.

"So uh... does your old man have shoes I can borrow?" he asked, wiggling his toes in the weird socks again, and Kairi grimaced a bit.

"My dad's like 5'9"," she said, shaking her head. "I'm pretty sure his sandals won't fit you anyway."

"Then I guess I'm wearing sneakers with my festival garb," he snorted, and Kairi sighed.

"I guess Riku's mom will just have to learn to live with it."

"Are you gonna get all fancy, too?" he asked. "Or did you just do this as an excuse to dress me up?"

"Admittedly, the latter was probably 75% of my motivation," she said with a grin, and Lea arched one eyebrow. "I have an ushinchi--it's kind of like the shirt you're wearing, but it's longer, like a dress."

"So you don't wear the pants that are a dress, you wear an actual dress, got it."

Kairi laughed softly, sliding open a drawer at the bottom of her dresser and removing a carefully folded garment, and Lea leaned forward to try and get a look at it. It was more brightly colored than the outfit he was wearing--his was mostly dark, bold blues and brownish golds, but her garment was bright saffron yellows and cherry reds in festive, floral designs. She unfolded it across her bed and then returned to the dresser to retrieve a long purple sash.

"Back in a sec," she said, and moved down the hallway to change. Lea lingered in her room, stepping closer to the dresser to examine the knick knacks there. She had placed the photo of her parents beside a little jewelry box, and he smiled a bit, picking up the frame gently. Something in him felt kind of bad that he hadn't made any sort of effort to ask Kairi if she was... well, _okay_. She had been reunited with her grandmother, yes, but she had also learned that both her parents were dead, and it hadn't occurred to him until later that it might have been good of him to talk to her about it. Now it felt like he'd waited too long.

Ugh, why was friendship so hard?

He put the photo down and lifted the lid of the jewelry box, then made a noise of alarm and let it fall closed again when a tinkly sound emanated from within it. There was stifled laughter from the doorway, and Lea turned around with a sheepish look on his face.

"I-I wasn't being nosy or nothin'," he said, even though that was exactly what he'd been caught being, but when he saw her standing in the doorway, draped in the brightly colored festival garb, he just sort of stared for a moment.

The robe was wrapped around her in layers, but somehow they managed to frame curves rather than hide them. Red and yellow flowers dyed into the fabric highlighted the bold auburn of her hair and made the cool violet-blue of her eyes stand out all the more against the warm color of her skin--he noted that the sash around her waist was actually almost the same color as her eyes.

She raised her eyebrows. "Something on my face?" she asked, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, and Lea shook his head, clearing his throat.

"No," he said, and then smiled softly. "You just look really different. I'm used to you wearing shorts and stuff. That fancy stuff, though, it looks... really nice."

He cleared his throat again. Why did he suddenly feel so _awkward_? He was allowed to notice a friend looked nice, wasn't he?

Kairi smiled brightly, doing a little spin in the doorway to show off the full outfit. "Think so?" she asked, and then clicked her tongue at him. "Gosh, Lea, don't think you can butter me up with compliments, though. Didn't your mom ever tell you never to touch anything in a girl's room?" she asked a bit too seriously, walking over to the jewelry box and laying a hand over it. "What if it'd been booby trapped?"

Lea looked concerned. "Girls _do_ that?" he asked, and Kairi just gave him a flat look.

"Girls _invented_ booby traps," she assured him. He narrowed his eyes dubiously, and she folded her arms over her chest. "Well, _boys_ don't even _have_ boobs, so _obviously_ girls invented booby traps."

He snorted a laugh then, pretty sure she was joking, though he couldn't say for certain. It wasn't like he _knew_ who had invented booby traps. Somehow what was funnier to him was the idea of Kairi--pure, Darkness-immune, Princess of Heart Kairi--saying the word 'boobs' with a straight face.

"Okay, I'm gonna find my sandals, and then we can head next door," she said, sitting down on the bed to pull on her weird socks with toes. She grinned at him then, a sparkle in her eyes. "If you think _I_ look fancy, wait'll you see Riku," she said, and Lea fidgeted where he stood, swallowing a lump in the back of his throat.

He had been trying to wrap his brain around this strange new thing, this appreciating Riku and Kairi... aesthetically. Certainly he was very fond of both of them, but honestly, Lea hadn't really _looked_ at anyone since he was sixteen years old, before he'd lost his heart. Romance and relationships had never had any place in the Organization--what were a bunch of creatures with no hearts and no emotions going to do with anything like that? They had barely been able to comprehend _friendship_ , let alone anything more than that, so not only did Lea have very little experience with these sorts of feelings in the first place, he had absolutely no situations he could even call upon for reference, save for that one time he had kissed a girl under the bleachers at school, which had, admittedly, only been because he'd been dared to.

Ugh, this was pointless. He shook his head and raked a hand back through his hair before he turned to head down the hall to the front foyer of Kairi's home, where he'd left his shoes. Even if he did acknowledge that he found them both kind of attractive, it didn't matter; he was too old for both of them, wasn't he? Whether or not they wound up going through with the arranged marriage thing, he knew they were crazy about one another anyway. There was no room in this equation for some washed up fogey, so there was no point in even thinking about it.

"Ready?" Kairi asked, coming down the hall, her long robe dress thing hiked up past her ankles so she didn't trip on it. He nodded as she dropped to a crouch beside the shoe rack near the door, sliding a pair of lacquered sandals onto her feet. She'd twisted her hair up into a loose bun atop her head, with a little metal pin holding it in place, and as she stood back up she tucked a stray lock of her bangs back behind her ear again. "All right, let's get going," she said, pulling the door open and then holding her arm out by the elbow, waiting for Lea to take it.

He balked instead, just staring at her arm, at the way her wrist looked so delicate beneath the layers of her sleeve, and she tilted her head in puzzlement.

"You know I was kidding about the booby trap thing, right?" she asked, and Lea snapped out of his stupor.

_Focus, stupid._

"Can't be too careful, yanno?" he said, shaking his head as he took her arm. "You womenfolk are tricksy."

"Indeed," she said, "can't trust us one bit." She called a farewell to her father, who was in his study working on paperwork of some sort, the last Lea had been informed, and then she pulled the door shut behind them. "We have to bring him a doggy bag," she said, and Lea chuckled.

"We can hide it in my sleeves," he said, flapping his free arm again to watch the sleeve fabric flutter.

"Good plan," Kairi said, and with that they headed down the path that led to the sidewalk that would take them next door.

As Kairi pushed open the little gate that closed off her yard from the sidewalk, Lea turned his head to the sound of (what he hoped was) delighted squealing, in time to backpedal as a trio of young children dashed past. One of them appeared to be dressed like a pirate, and the other two looked like characters from a superhero comic or something. Their being dressed oddly was less unsettling to him than the fact that they were now rushing up to Kairi's house like they lived there.

"Sorry, mister!" the pirate shouted as they bolted up the walk to the front door, and Lea just blinked at them, then looked to Kairi for explanation.

"It's Halloween, remember?" she asked, and Lea made the universal noise for 'I don't know', lifting his palms in bafflement.

"You say that like I understand your holidays," he said with a bit of a laugh. "I went to Halloween Town once or twice, but all I got from that was that people really like creepy things, there really wasn't any explanation."

"Oh!" Kairi looked apologetic. "Sorry, I guess I just assumed you understood."

"Never assume that," Lea snorted. "Other worlds make no sense, half the time, and I haven't exactly had the luxury of stopping the natives to ask about it 'til now."

"Halloween is a shortened word for All Hallows Eve," Kairi explained as they walked slowly toward Riku's house next door. She pointed across the street. "See how that house there has a bunch of decorations?"

Lea looked, then tilted his head. "Yeah, I also got that people in Halloween Town really like pumpkins," he said, shrugging.

"I feel like the whole thing would take too long to explain," Kairi sighed, shaking her head, "but Halloween was originally a holiday for remembering those who have passed, I think, hence the 'hallows' part. Over time, it kind of morphed into a celebration of creepy things, because... I dunno, dead people, I guess? I think the pumpkins are a tie-in from the season, like it's the end of the last harvest or something, but I'm not entirely sure."

"Makes no less sense than celebrating zombies with bunnies and eggs," Lea reasoned, and Kairi just swatted at his arm. "Actually it sounds a lot like the festival we had on Radiant Garden to celebrate the end of summer," he said then.

"Oh?"

He nodded. "Yeah, it was actually usually around this time of year, too," he said. "There were stories about how after the final harvest of the year, the boundary that separated our world from the world of the dead was thinnest, because the days were getting shorter and darkness was coming or something, I think..." Holiday origins tended to get kind of muddled over the centuries. "So it was decided that the last day of summer would be a celebration of loved ones who had passed on. We would dress in jewelry or important things that belonged to the people we were honoring--like your grandma's pearls or your great uncle's favorite hat, for example--and there would be a bonfire in the castle square."

Kairi pressed her lips together, then shook her head. "I don't remember," she said softly, and Lea gently put a hand on her shoulder, smiling a little.

"Maybe we can go, sometime," he said.

Kairi nodded, closing her hand around her mother's necklace. "I'd like that," she said. "Now that I know who they are... I'd like to honor my parents at a festival like that one day."

There was a moment of quiet, with naught but their footsteps on the sidewalk and the distant calls of other children to break it. When the moment grew longer than Lea's patience, however, he cleared his throat.

"So why were those kids running through your yard, anyway?" he asked, and shook his head. "Don't tell me there's breaking and entering with this holiday, too...?"

Kairi snorted and nudged him with her shoulder. "No, you moron," she laughed. "They're trick or treating."

"Tricky whatnow?"

"Kids dress up in costumes and go around door to door saying 'trick or treat!', and people give them candy," she explained, and Lea just looked utterly baffled.

"So you... put kids in costumes and _encourage_ taking candy from strangers?" he asked, and Kairi nodded as if this was a perfectly normal thing to do. Lea rubbed his forehead in befuddlement. "Somehow I think the breaking and entering idea made more sense..."

* * *

Radiant Garden had had its share of festivals--the solstices, the equinoxes, Summer's End as he'd mentioned to Kairi, the Night of Fire in the spring (he'd always been especially fond of that one)--but Lea had never seen a celebration quite so _fancy_ as this Shutsugen. It hardly even seemed like a birthday party, honestly; it was more like a swanky soiree. For all this was supposed to be celebrating Riku's birthday, he didn't see a single gift anywhere. There didn't appear to be any cake, and there were definitely no pointy hats. There were a handful of people inside the house, lingering around some of the paintings in the sitting room, or helping carry drinks in fine crystal carafes out to the patio. Everyone was dressed in their Sunday best, it seemed--some in clothes like what he and Kairi were wearing, others in formal suits and skirts--and he had to presume there wasn't going to be any Pin the Puff on the Moogle being played anywhere. (Rats.)

Even wearing the funny basho robe Kairi had loaned him, he somehow felt underdressed as the two of them were escorted through Riku's living room and to the back patio, which was almost unrecognizable now. The overhang that kept the sun off the patio was lit up with strings of tiny glowing paper lanterns and dangling red and yellow ribbons. In one corner, there was something that looked kind of like a little shrine, decorated with an incense burner and three small, squat towers of stacked, smooth rocks. Where there was usually a small, tasteful table and chairs made of artfully twisted iron, now there was a huge banquet table covered end to end in all sorts of foods Lea couldn't even identify--steaming balls of fried dough, noodles in a savory sauce, stir-fried vegetables, fresh sliced pineapple and mango and a pyramid of strange wrinkly purple-colored fruits. Funnily enough, he didn't see anything that resembled a particular fruit he had expected to encounter.

"Hey, don't you guys eat a lot of that, uh..." He snapped his fingers, trying to think of the word. "That... paofu fruit? The star-shaped one." He gestured toward the table, and Kairi giggled, a hand daintily covering her mouth.

"We're pretty superstitious here," she explained, "and the paopu fruit has kind of a funny story that goes with it."

"Oh?" Lea asked, but before Kairi could explain, Hanako swept up to them in a flurry of colorful fabric. She was dressed in a similar outfit to Kairi's, but the colors were a bit more understated, and her hair was arranged differently, though he noted she had a similar metal stick holding the up'do together.

"I'm so glad you two made it," she said brightly, reaching out and brushing a hand softly against Kairi's cheek. "My dear, you look stunning in that," she said, and then turned to smile at Lea. "And Lea, I didn't expect to see you in a--oh." Her smiled faltered a bit then, and Lea realized he'd never fixed his robe to wrap it the right way. "Dear, did you need some help getting dressed?" she asked diplomatically. "I know these traditional outfits can be somewhat daunting for mainlanders--it took me a while to get the hang of it when I first married Riku's father."

Lea glanced at Kairi, who was trying very hard to appear casual.

"Help?" he echoed with feigned ignorance. "I... dunno, did I do something wrong?" He smoothed his hands over the front of the basho and then straightened the lapels. "I thought I looked pretty killer."

Yes, that was a deliberate word choice. Hanako's expression faltered a little more, her smile looking a bit pained now.

"That's... one way to describe it, certainly," she said, and then looked at Kairi. "Kairi, maybe you could assist him in fixing it a bit," she suggested, and Kairi gently placed her hand against her chin, fingers against her lips, and did an excellent job of looking baffled.

"Fix?" she echoed. "I'm not sure what's wrong, it looks pretty killer to me."

Lea had to bite his tongue to keep from snorting in laughter. He didn't dislike Hanako, but he felt decidedly foolish about the way he'd simply disregarded the hints Riku had continually dropped about her somewhat duplicitous and cloying personality. If Kairi of all people believed that Hanako deserved a bit of an eye-twitch, he wasn't about to argue with her.

"Th... that's all right, dearie," Hanako said, her smile now very visibly forced. "I know you don't wear these very often, so I can't fault you for missing... little details." She fidgeted with the neckline of her own ushinchi and then carefully tucked a single stray lock of hair back into its bun. "I'm sure no one will be bothered," she said, looking as though it was taking every ounce of self control she had to not just shove Lea back inside and fix the basho herself. "Please enjoy the refreshments, and there will be some festivities beginning in..." She paused to check the dainty watch around her wrist. "Oh, goodness, less than ten minutes," she said, and waved her hands. "I have to go make sure Riku's all ready. Have a good time, you two!"

And with that she was gone in the same flurry of colors and swishing fabric she had arrived in.

Kairi managed to keep herself together for a laudable six seconds before she made a very unladylike snorting sound trying to contain her laughter.

"Did you see her _face_?" she giggled, and Lea tried valiantly to keep a straight face, but was ultimately unable to. Kairi's laughter was kind of infectious, and Lea couldn't help but join her.

"She looked like she was trying not to throw up," he guffawed. "Sheesh, am I _that_ disgusting?"

"Utterly revolting," Kairi assured him with a bump of her hip. "You and your creepy dead-person basho."

"Braaaains," he replied in a creaky voice, reaching for her head with wobbly arms, which only made her laugh harder and swat at him. "So what was all that about the paofu and superstition?"

"Paopu," she corrected, and toyed with the hems of her sleeves. "The old stories say that if you share a paopu fruit with someone, then your destinies will be forever tied together," she said. "It's usually interpreted as a romantic thing, so like... Wakka's dad proposed to his mom by taking her out for parfait and bringing diced paopu to put on the sundaes."

"That is egregiously dorky," Lea said with a smile, and Kairi grinned.

"Wakka's pretty dorky," she said, "so I guess it's genetic. But like you've got room to talk about dorkiness, Mister Zombie Wearing Sneakers."

"Don't make me eat your brains, Princess," Lea threatened benignly. "I've been trying to cut back, okay?"

"I hear brains have a lot of cholesterol," Kairi snickered, and Lea nodded, though he wasn't actually certain of the nutritional value of the human brain.

"I gotta watch my figure, and all," he said, running his hands down his sides. He turned to the table then, giving a shrug and reaching for a plate. "Doesn't mean I can't try a little of all this weird food, though."

Kairi swatted at him. "There you go, making fun of our culture again," she sighed with exaggerated disdain. "Just for that, I should make you try the natto."

"What's natto?" he asked, and Kairi made a face.

"You _really_ don't wanna know."

Lea picked at a few of the offered dishes, fumbling with the noodles. He could eat with chopsticks, but eating _noodles_ with chopsticks was a skill he hadn't quite mastered yet. There were little pieces of grilled fish that were surprisingly good despite the fact that Lea had never been a big fan of seafood, and the fruit was sweet and perfectly ripe. Nothing less from Hanako, he supposed.

There was a bit of commotion from one corner of the garden, and Lea turned to see what was going on. Hanako emerged from a side door and blended back into the crowd of minglers, and then there was the sound of drums being beaten in a specific, syncopated rhythm.

"Oh, oh, this is gonna be good," Kairi said, pushing Lea away from the food table. "Come on, I wanna make sure we get good seats."

"There _aren't_ any seats over here," Lea said, confused, and Kairi tugged at one of the spikes of his hair.

"I mean I wanna be able to _see_ , you dorkface," she said. "Quit being so literal and walk!"

They wove through the crowd, and Lea felt a little bad moving up to the front when he was a good head taller than most of these people anyway, but he was noticing that Riku had been mostly right when he'd said that the majority of these people were probably just here for the food. Everyone had a plate and a drink in their hands, and only a fraction of them were paying any attention to whatever it was Kairi was so interested in getting a good view of. Pushing to the front of the people who had collected near a raised platform in the center of the yard, Kairi tucked her ushinchi up and carefully settled onto her knees in the grass, which was dotted with small squares of fabric Lea presumed were used in place of chairs, to keep one from staining their clothes. No one else was seated on these patches of fabric, he noted; they were probably too worried about mussing their fancy clothes up. He followed Kairi's example, fussing with his hakama briefly before he managed to get them corralled under his legs, but after about ten seconds of sitting on his knees he grimaced and shifted.

"I dunno how you can sit like that," he said, looking at Kairi seated neatly atop her knees as he moved to sit cross-legged instead. "I've tried a few times--Riku told me it was like some ritual thing old warriors used to do, they trained themselves to be able to sit on their knees so they could make an attack at any moment..." He shook his head. "Good thing I've got weapons I can throw, 'cuz if I had to sit that way for any period of time my legs'd fall asleep and I'd just faceplant."

"Amateur," Kairi whispered, and then shushed him.

The drums continued, and after a moment, Lea saw movement in the corner of his eye, and he turned to watch as Riku emerged from the house. Riku was dressed similarly to how he was himself, with a basho and hakama, but he also wore a second robe sort of thing on top. The hakama were bright gold and deep navy blue, and the basho was a clean, icy white with gold trim. If Riku had told him he was going to be dressed mostly in gold, Lea might have made a face and teased him that gold and silver didn't mix, but despite the color of Riku's hair, he looked downright _radiant_ in the traditional outfit.

There was a smattering of applause, and Lea snapped out of his trance to join in.

"He wears this stuff way better than I do," he said aside to Kairi, and she snickered.

"That's 'cuz he's not wearing it wrapped like a dead guy."

The applause quieted, as did the drums, and for an instant the whole yard was quiet as Riku stepped into the middle of the little stage.  He held his arms out, one in front of him and one to the side, and then was still, and Lea watched, enraptured, as the drums started again, slow and rhythmic this time.

He hadn't been expecting a _dance_. For that matter, he hadn't had any idea Riku _could_ dance. He had never struck him as the dancing sort, but as he watched him move around the stage with practiced ease, he found himself utterly enthralled. His own combat style had been likened to dancing before--Flurry of _Dancing_ Flames, and all that--but Lea didn't actually know any real dance moves besides the stupid fad dance that had made the rounds when he was in high school.  Anybody could put their hands on their hips and twist around. This sort of traditional dancing was really intricate, though; he had seen a few things of this nature during his time with the Organization, and these festival dances almost always had some specific meaning, or a symbolic something they stood for.

"What's this dance called?" he asked quietly, his eyes never moving from where Riku moved gracefully across the stage.

"It's the _Kouyou_ ," Kairi whispered back. "The Turning of the Leaves. There are four different Shutsugen dances, one for each season, so since Riku's birthday is in the fall, this is the one he learns.  Each one is symbolic of the growth or change that occurs in each season."

"Do the leaves _turn_ here?" Lea blurted, puzzled. He'd thought the trees were all palms or something, and Kairi nodded.

"Not the ones right on the beach," she said softly, "but there are cherry trees and maples and stuff further inland, in town."

"Huh." Lea had heard her, but he was only half paying attention to her words. He was much more interested in watching Riku dance. He had always sort of marveled at the way Riku could move when they had sparred together--he twisted and turned and leapt like a cat, and was far more agile and graceful than his broad shoulders and awkward demeanor might have suggested--but while combat and dancing weren't so very different, in the end, somehow seeing Riku dance was seeing him in a while new light.

The drums quieted and Riku held his final pose, arms outstretched much as they'd been when he'd begun the dance, and he smiled as applause rippled through the crowd. Lea clapped heartily, and though he was certainly going to tease Riku later for being a good dancer and never telling him about it, for the moment he was just going to be thoroughly impressed. He watched as Riku stepped down off the platform, carefully lifting the hems of the hakama and giving a practiced smile when he was approached by an older couple.

"Oh, that's one of the magistrates from the mainland," Kairi said, and Lea supposed it made perfect sense that she would know most of the Who's Who of Destiny Islands, given that her father was the mayor. "He might look like a sweet old man, but he's actually a real hardass."

Lea splayed a hand over his chest.

" _Kairi Marie_ ," he gasped with exaggerated shock, making up a middle name since he didn't know hers. "Where did you learn to talk like that? Certainly not from _me_."

Kairi laughed. "Just because my heart has no darkness in it doesn't mean my vocabulary has to be 100% pure, gosh," she said matter of factly, and Lea looked at her with feigned appall.

He turned back to Riku then, watching with a degree of surprise as he chatted with the magistrate a moment, smiling almost genuinely, and reaching out to shake the old man's hand. He looked up then, catching Lea's eye and giving him an overblown grimace before he carefully minced toward him, gingerly shuffling in his sandals over the grass.

"Hey, guys," he said, smiling sheepishly and allowing Kairi to hug him briefly before he gave Lea an odd look. "I wasn't expecting _you_ to dress up."

"Well, pardon me for wanting to look fancy like the rest of you," he said, folding his arms, and Riku rubbed his chin.

"Did you also want to look dead?" he asked, pointing to the basho. "Because you succeeded."

"I've already threatened to eat Kairi's brains," Lea warned him, wagging a finger. "Don't make me add yours to the menu."

"Your dance was super awesome," Kairi said then, seeming eager to change the subject away from zombies. "When did you even find time to practice?"

"Oh, here and there," Riku hedged, which told Lea he'd practiced this dance at least three or four times when he should have been sleeping instead.

"I wanna know when he found time to practice _schmoozing_ ," Lea said, nodding his head toward the magistrate and his wife where they had meandered further into the yard to speak with some equally fancy equally elderly-looking people. "You chatted up that old fossil like a champ!"

Riku pulled at the back of his neck. "Well, I knew I was gonna have to talk to some important people today," he said with a frown, "so... I guess I psyched myself up for it, or something."

"So how come you're all thumbs when it comes to diplomacy on missions?" Lea asked bluntly, and Riku blustered, looking embarrassed.

"That's... different," he said, shaking his head. "The magistrate is important _here_ , on a small scale, you know? He decides how much you pay for your littering violation, or if you have to do community service because you shoplifted. But the people we meet with on other worlds, on our missions..." He kept his voice low, like he was worried about being overheard. "I mean, they're _actually_ important. They make decisions that affect a whole entire world!"

"They're still people, Riku," Kairi pointed out, shaking her head a little, and Riku gave a huff.

"I dunno!" he said, shuffling his feet and lowering his eyes. "Look, I don't _like_ schmoozing, either way, so I do as little of it as possible." He sort of sulked up at Lea then. "Better to leave it to you and Kairi, with your silver tongues."

Lea stuck his tongue out and tried to look at it, crossing his eyes.

"My tongue ith noth thilver," he insisted, and Riku snorted a laugh, hiding it behind one hand as though he wasn't allowed to actually look like he was enjoying himself in such important company. "Anyway, that dance you did was pretty cool," Lea said then. "I didn't know you even _could_ dance."

Riku made a face. "I really can't, much," he said. "The traditional dances aren't like ballroom dancing, they're a really different sort of style. I'm pretty okay at these, I guess. I've studied most of them since I was a kid--I really do love the traditional dances of the islands, and I kinda wish there were more occasions to actually _do_ them, but even a lot of the island families aren't teaching their kids how do do them anymore." He frowned deeply. "The only normal kind of dance I can do is a waltz."

Lea shrugged. "I can't do either kind," he said.

"I bet you could, if you tried," Riku insisted, smiling a bit slyly. "I've seen the way you move."

Lea arched an eyebrow. "Oh, really? See anything you like?" he asked coyly, buffing his nails on his lapel, and Riku looked so instantly flustered and to such a degree that Lea almost felt bad for teasing him.

"L-look, all I'm saying is, I bet you could be a good dancer if you had a good teacher," Riku grumbled, pointedly not meeting Lea's eye. Lea wanted to ask him if he were offering to teach him the dance; Riku was a pretty good instructor after all, which he never gave himself enough credit for, in Lea's opinion. In the end, however, he decided against it. Riku was already looking intensely embarrassed, and he knew he was uncomfortable even being here at this celebration that was all about him. If there was one thing Lea knew for sure, it was that Riku _hated_ it when things were all about him.

Hopefully the _real_ birthday party they had planned later would fall into the slightly different category of 'Things That Are Meant to Distract Riku from His Stressful Life'.

"Anyway..." Riku shuffled his feet again, still looking awkward, and then shrugged. "I'll just be glad when this is over. Nobody's actually here to see me dance, you know?" He cast a baleful look at the people crowded around the buffet table, then over his shoulder to where several other people were admiring his mother's garden, and Lea frowned a bit.

" _We_ are," he said, his voice perhaps more sincere than it had ever been, and Riku looked startled. Lea glanced at Kairi. "Right? I mean... this party's kind of stuffy, to be honest, and I dunno anybody here except you two. Why _else_ would I be here?"

Riku didn't answer, instead just sort of sagging where he stood, like this had somehow taken the wind out of his sails. Lea pursed his lips. Riku hadn't even brought up the fact that this was his _birthday_ \--if Kairi hadn't told him, he wouldn't have had any idea. _No one_ had mentioned that it was Riku's birthday, and despite the festivities, he hadn't seen anyone approach him but the magistrate--no one had even _wished_ him a happy birthday. He was slowly beginning to understand just how Riku's environment had precipitated his inferiority complex.

"Besides," he said then, and Riku looked up at him, something fragile about his expression. "Why not just dance anyway?" Lea asked.

"Huh?" Riku made a face.

"Dance anyway," Lea repeated with a shrug. "Who cares if nobody important is watching? Who cares if you're awesome or if you suck? If you wanna dance, I say dance anyway, whether it's actual dancing or if that's just a metaphor for something else you're passionate about." He impulsively reached out and tweaked one of the locks of longer hair that framed Riku's face. "Life is short," he said. "You never know when your number's gonna come up, and most of the time, you don't _get_ another shot at it, you know?" he asked, his eyes skirting off to one side as he grinned a little, poking obvious fun at his own situation. "People waste so much time wondering if it's worth it to do stuff that seems frivolous, but without the things you enjoy doing, regardless of how trivial they might seem, then what's the point of living anyway? It doesn't matter if they're dances for special occasions, or if nobody else knows how to dance them with you; if you wanna dance, then dance while you can, because you dunno when you might never have another chance. Got it memorized?"

Riku just stared at him for a long moment, and then a broad smile crawled ever so slowly across his expression, like it had to warm up before it could actually be a smile. He smiled more now than he had when they'd first met, that was for sure, but even now, Lea couldn't help but feel special to be on the receiving end of a smile like that one.

"You're a sap," Riku said, shaking his head. "Anybody ever tell you that?"

"Never," he deadpanned without missing a beat, and Riku's smile burst into bright laughter. 

Lea knew his tendency to make speeches was corny. He knew that waxing philosophical and weaving complex metaphor wasn't necessarily the _best_ way to get a point across, but hey, it made the moment more memorable, right? People remembered advice more when receiving it evoked a positive emotion, after all, and Lea had never really had any qualms about looking a little silly for the sake of someone who mattered. His mother had always told him about how people wouldn't necessarily remember the things you said, but they would _always_ remember how you made them _feel_.

It had taken him a long time to learn that maybe he'd been looking at immortality the wrong way all along. Maybe immortality wasn't so much about living forever as it was about knowing that the things you did and said to your important people would be _with_ them forever. In the end, what good was living forever without important people to spend that forever with, anyway?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more shameless worldbuilding, can't stop won't stop. so in fleshing out Destiny Islands, i went with kind of a mashup of mainland Japan and Okinawa, which seemed appropriate. basho really is a fabric used in Okinawan textiles, made from banana leaves, and ushinchi really is the word for an Okinawan kimono. and wrapping a kimono style robe right over left is actually how a corpse is dressed for a funeral, so i really couldn't resist the amusing faux pas.
> 
> more fun trivia: the chapter title is a nod to where the fic title actually came from, so with the titular line in dialogue, i thought it would be a good way to sort of tie it all together. the title comes from a very haunting poem written by W.H. Auden, called Death's Echo, and i highly recommend checking it out. it's a piece that has always really stood out to me, and when i figured out what i wanted to do with this fic, i knew exactly how i wanted to title it. the poem is all about man's peculiar polarized views about life, about what is good and what is bad, about what is worthwhile and what isn't and how we waste so much of our lives on things that ultimately don't matter. it's kind of an oddball, as far as poems go, inasmuch as it doesn't give you a bunch of flowery imagery or sugary stanzas about love and the wonders of life; it's very real and kind of gritty, and that's part of the reason it has stayed with me all this time. the message of the whole thing is pretty straightforward, actually: ultimately death is a honey badger and doesn't give a shit, so do what you want, do what feels right, live your life while you have the opportunity, because you might not have that opportunity tomorrow. it sort of works twofold, really: the story has been following all three characters learning how to live their own lives for their own satisfaction instead of just for the sake of meeting expectation, but this fic has also been a really fun pastime for me for a long while now while ultimately it's been a bit of a catharsis for me as well. it's been a good exercise in remembering that it's okay to do something silly or frivolous or something that is seen as unimportant in the long run, not because it accomplishes something great, but because i WANT to. i want to write this fic and share it with you, and even if it accomplishes nothing but keeping a handful of readers entertained for a while, i still think that's something worth doing while i can.
> 
> hope you're all still with me. comments give meaning to the post-apocalyptic dystopia of my life. you can also help me be able to write more stuff more often by [supporting my work](http://kawree.dreamwidth.org/447069.html)!


	36. Afterparty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the real party begins.

Riku supposed that, all things considered, this hadn't been the _worst_ birthday ever. No, that accolade probably belonged to his 10th birthday, where--as usual--his mother had decided to make things all about herself, and when she had taken him to be fitted for a formal outfit for the occasion, she had literally left him at the tailor's. Of course he knew she'd simply forgotten him and hadn't left him deliberately, but he had needed to use the bathroom and, in his absence, she had taken the formal clothes and put them in the car and left without him. Riku had always been quiet when he wasn't playing with his friends, so he guessed it was reasonable that she didn't realize he wasn't in the car with her until she got home, but it hadn't really made the situation any easier to swallow.

Today hadn't been _so_ bad, though. Sure, he'd been stuffed into clothes he didn't really want to wear for a ceremony nobody actually cared about, but he'd gotten to dance, and there were two people who had come for _him_ instead of the food, at least. (Well, in Lea's case it was probably 50/50.) He smiled a little to himself as he watched Kairi try and explain the other dances that were done for birthdays in the other seasons, and shook his head when Lea, as usual, decided to crack jokes about it.

"So, lemme see if I've got this straight," he said, wagging a finger vaguely in the air. "Fall birthdays dance about leaves, and winter birthdays dance about the coming new year because you don't get snow or actual winter here..." He paused, like he had to sort his out in his head. "If you're born in the spring, you dance about cherry blossoms, and if you're born in the summer, you dance about... cicadas?" He made a bit of a face. "Is there screaming involved?"

Kairi swatted at him. "No, you dolt," she snorted.

"But cicadas just sit in the trees and scream all day!" Lea countered, shaking his head like this was genuinely concerning to him. "How can you have a dance about cicadas without the screaming?"

"Oh my God, Lea."

"It isn't _just_ about cicadas," Riku said, chuckling. "There's a cuckoo involved, too."

"Is that a pointed remark?" Lea asked, arching one eyebrow and gearing up to feign offense.

Riku just sighed and shook his head again. "It's a dance about the sounds of summer, you..." What was the word Lea liked to use? "Lunkhead."

Lea barked a laugh. "I think you've been hanging around me too much," he said, and Riku gave him an indignant look.

"You live in my _house_ ," he reminded him, and then laughed helplessly. "Besides, who else am I gonna hang out with?" he asked. "Sora's away, so you and Kairi are really the only people who like me."

Oh, that had come out a bit more despondent than he'd intended.

Kairi and Lea exchanged glances, then looked long-sufferingly at him in tandem, and Riku thought to himself that it was a bit eerie the way they managed to sync up like that so often.

"Maybe other people would like you more if you weren't so stoic about everything," Lea chided, and Riku pursed his lips. "I mean, I wouldn't have known today was your birthday at all, if Kairi hadn't told me."

He gave him an apologetic look. "I just didn't want anybody to make a big deal over it," he said, lowering his eyes. "It's Halloween, anyway; people are gonna have more fun wearing costumes and going trick or treating than they would at a dumb party for me. I wouldn't want anyone to miss having a good time because they felt like they had to hang out with me instead."

"Riku, do you even hear yourself talk, sometimes?" Kairi asked, hands on her hips. "People like you, and they want to spend time with you, so deal with it."

Riku folded his arms and looked chastised, then cast an accusatory glance at Lea.

"Well, it isn't like you've told us when _your_ birthday is," he pointed out, going back to the previous topic that still had room for debate. "Maybe you should have led by example."

"First of all, _you're_ the Master," Lea said, his grin snide, "so _you_ should be the one leading by example." Riku couldn't refute this. "Secondly, my birthday is in August."

Both Riku and Kairi looked instantly distraught.

"August!?" Kairi gasped, shaking her head. "Lea, why didn't you _say_ anything?"

"Yeah, you can't scold me for not telling you when you just let your birthday pass without a word!" Riku said.

Lea shook his head. "It's not August yet," he said with a shrug.

"Lea, it's October." Kairi looked at him like she wanted to ask if he'd hit his head. "August comes _before_ October."

"Well, yeah, but in Radiant Garden it's only May," Lea said without a single hint of sarcasm, and Riku gave a visible start.

"Wait, what?" he asked, shaking his head. He knew that time passed differently on different worlds, but somehow it hadn't even occurred to him that Lea might have been basing the time of year on the calendar of his _home_ world.

"Yeah, in Radiant Garden it's..." His eyes winged skyward and he thought for a moment. "May 19th," he said, and rubbed his chin. "Time seems to pass at about the same speed there as it does here, but the months are skewed, so there must be like a minuscule discrepancy somewhere that causes the long-term shift. Like why leap years have to happen on some worlds."

"I never even thought about that," Kairi admitted, pressing fingers against her lower lip. "Grandma had a calendar up in the kitchen, but I thought she'd just forgotten to change it or something."

"Man, they don't even use the same _calendar_ system in some worlds," Lea said, shaking his head. "The Land of Dragons' calendar is like... based on the phases moon and a bunch of elements and animals and stuff. Even _I_ couldn't quite figure it out. I will never again question the validity of the 'r' in February after that nonsense."

"Wait, wait, wait," Kairi said, waving her hands to pause the discussion, and Riku looked at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his brow furrowed. She looked acutely distressed.

"I've been celebrating my birthday on April 23rd," she said, still sort of flapping her hands, "but if I was born on April 23rd, that's... That'd be April 23rd in Radiant Garden! Not here!"

Riku looked instantly horrified. "So then, we just missed your _actual_ birthday a few weeks ago?" That was completely unacceptable!

"Apparently?" Kairi's voice had risen half an octave, and she had both hands on her cheeks. "I'm so confused now," she said, shaking her head. "Am I a Taurus or a _Libra_? Am I actually _older_ than Sora?" She looked frantically at Lea. "Is Radiant Garden five months _behind_ us or seven months _ahead_?" She grabbed Lea's sleeve. "Lea, this is very important--what year is it?"

"How did the times get all skewed anyway?" Riku asked, less concerned with whether Kairi or Sora was older and more puzzled by the fact that worlds that used the same calendars could be on different time scales in the first place.

"I think that stems from when the worlds were connected, once upon a time," Lea said, tapping his chin and mostly ignoring Kairi's continued tugging on his sleeve. "The calendar a lot of worlds use now was homogenized for all the connected worlds, so things could be planned and recorded without confusion, but when they were separated, time started passing differently, so now they're all wonky."

"Really?" Riku asked, and Lea shrugged one shoulder.

"That's what I heard," he said. "The Organization had eyes and ears like everywhere, so I guess that was one benefit to working for them: we found out a _lot_ of stuff that most people had forgotten or never bothered to share outside their own worlds."

"Lea, this is _important_!" Kairi insisted again, and he looked at her with a puzzled expression. She released his sleeve and gestured with both hands. "I arrived here on Destiny Islands in June of 1992," she said. "I didn't remember much, besides my name, but I knew my birthday was April 23rd and I was four years old. So then I turned five almost a year later in May of 1993, and it didn't seem weird that it took so long because I was _four_ and four year olds don't really have any concept of time. Sora turned five in November that year I arrived, but if I was already four in June here, which is..." She counted on her fingers. "That's January in Radiant Garden! So that means..." She paused just a moment and then a huge grin split her face. "I _actually_ turned five at the end of September that same year!" Her whole face lit up and she made a mad grab for Riku's arms and, to his credit, he didn't flinch beyond squeezing one eye closed in anticipation. "Riku I'm older than Sora! Oh my gosh I cannot _wait_ to tease him about this."

Lea laughed brightly, his shoulders shaking. "Wow, that was a lot of math just for teasing rights," he guffawed, and Kairi pointed a very authoritative finger at him.

"Sora and Riku were both older than me when we were kids, so they always got to be in charge," she said. "Plus, I was a girl in addition to being the youngest, so I never got to decide stuff." She folded her arms and beamed proudly. "Just _wait_ 'til he hears my birthday is actually like a month and a half _before_ his. I've got _years_ of bossing him around to catch up on."

"Kairi, what are you even talking about?" Riku snorted. "You've been bossing _all_ of us around our whole lives."

"Maybe," she said, grinning, "but now he has to actually listen to me."

Riku hid laughter behind one hand. Not a day went by that he didn't regret the way things had gone a few years ago, that he didn't regret the actions he'd taken that had driven a wedge between him and the people he cared about most, but some days he regretted the time he'd spent away from Kairi more than others. Even if she hadn't so adamantly insisted on being part of the team this time around, Riku thought he probably would have made an effort to spend a lot more time with her these days anyway, so he was really glad the way things had worked out.

All three of them looked up sharply when there was a crackling noise from somewhere down the street, and Riku gave a soft sigh.

"Sounds like they're setting off fireworks at the beach," he said wistfully.

Lea glanced at Kairi, then looked at Riku. "Fireworks for this Halloween thing?" he asked. "Didn't seem like a fireworksy sort of occasion, but okay."

"Mostly people just like to light stuff on fire," Kairi told him, patting his arm. "Actually, you'd fit right in."

"I resemble that remark," Lea harrumphed, and Riku smiled softly.

"Well, maybe we can go to the beach after all of this nonsense is over with," he said, then sighed again. Who was he kidding? His mom was going to make him help clean everything up once the festival was over, and by the time everything was done, it would be way too late for any beachgoing.

He was about to tell Kairi and Lea they could head down to the beach without him and that he would catch up later (which he knew he wouldn't have time for, but it didn't make any sense for them _all_ to miss out) when there was a bit of a clatter from the patio near the house. Riku turned in time to see Selphie stumble past the buffet table and catch herself on the corner, breathing hard, as though she'd just run a marathon.

"Selphie, are you okay?" Kairi asked, rushing to her friend's side and taking her arm. "You're all out of breath!"

"I just... ran here... from the beach," Selphie gasped as Lea and Riku stepped closer, concerned. "I came... to get Riku," she said, and looked up at him.

"Wh-- me?" Riku shook his head. "What're you looking for me for?"

"There's a group of kids who took a raft out into the water," she said, her breathing a little less ragged now, "but they got caught just past the breakers and can't get back in, now."

"Wha?" Riku's jaw slid open. "Why would they do that? That's so _dangerous_!"

"You're the best swimmer on the island," Selphie said, straightening and patting Kairi's hand that was still on her arm before giving Riku an emphatic nod. "I thought, if anybody can help them, it's Riku!"

Later, Riku would realize it was ridiculous for Selphie to have run all the way here instead of calling the police, or contacting a lifeguard at one of the watch stations that spotted the beach, but in the moment all he could think was that someone had to help those kids. He shrugged out of the second robe he was wearing and draped it over the back of a chair. He would worry about putting it away later. Reaching up to grab one of the long, low-hanging ribbons that decorated the patio coverings, he clamped one end in his teeth and twisted it around under his arms to tie the long sleeves of his basho back out of his way and then turned to look at Kairi and Lea.

"You two should stay here," he said firmly, and Kairi looked viciously indignant.

"Excuse me, haven't we been over this Leaving Kairi Behind garbage?" she asked, and Riku made a flustered noise.

"Can you even _run_ in that?" he asked, gesturing at her ushinchi, and then he flicked a hand toward Lea. "And he _never_ wears pants that big, he'll trip and fall on his face."

"Excuse _you_ ," Lea said. "I'm not gonna let you have all the fun all by yourself, Mister Big Damn Hero."

Kairi hiked up the hem of her ushinchi and gave Riku a stern look. "No way we're staying here," she said, and Riku just shook his head and waved a hand.

"Fine," he said, "but I'm not gonna explain to your dad why you ruined your shoes."

That was a lie. He definitely would. But he still didn't think it was a good idea for Kairi and Lea to come along. They were dressed really nicely, and he didn't want them to get sand or dirt or salt water on the fine clothes, but he knew them both well enough by now to know that no amount of protesting from him would stop them from following him.

"Lead the way, Selphie," he said, and kicked off his good dress sandals, yanking off the tabi socks and tossing them aside. His mother would have a fit if he ruined those shoes, so he would just run barefoot. It wouldn't be the first time. He made a soft noise of distress when Kairi followed suit, though. "Kairi, you can't--"

"Riku, I've been running around this island without shoes almost as long as you have," she said. "If I get tetanus, it'll be my own fault, okay?"

"Ugh, you're impossible," he said, and then glanced at Lea, as if waiting for him to do something exceptionally stupid as well. Lea just blinked at him, then pointed down at his shoes.

"Hey, I'm the only smart person here wearin' sneakers, I'm good to go."

* * *

Riku was only slightly out of breath by the time they reached the edge of the beach. He supposed he could thank all the Keyblade training for that--his endurance had increased exponentially over the past couple of years. He'd always been pretty athletic, but saving the universe had a way of really maxing out your physical fitness regime. Selphie had fallen behind several blocks ago and had shouted breathlessly where to head, and later, Riku would realize that it had been terribly suspect that Kairi seemed to know exactly where they were going, despite only just being informed of the situation at the same time he had been.

Vaulting over the boardwalk railing that separated the main street from the sandy beach, Riku landed softly and then dashed toward the water. He scanned the horizon for the raft, pausing a moment to shade his eyes from the setting sun. Where was the raft? He couldn't see anything... Oh, Light, had they been swept out to sea? How would he ever find them if they'd gone too far out?

Oh! Maybe he could use his glider! It would glide over water the way it glided over land, wouldn't it? He guessed it was time to find out; it would probably raise some questions, but he wasn't going to risk lives for the sake of discretion. Snapping his arm out to call up his Keyblade, he gasped in surprise when a hand closed around his wrist.

"Riku-- _wait_."

"Lea, let go of me," he said sharply. "I have to go look for--"

"Try looking _around_ before you complete this jump to an incorrect conclusion, champ."

Riku glowered at him, his worry for the lost kids completely drowning out his usually keen sense of logic, but when he looked down at Lea's hand on his wrist, then looked toward Kairi where she stood beside him, a little smile on her face, all the little incongruencies in the situation began to catch up with him. Why _had_ Selphie come for him, instead of looking for the lifeguard or calling the police? How _had_ Kairi known where to go, even once Selphie had fallen behind? For that matter, why hadn't Kairi stayed with Selphie to make certain she was all right after all that running?

Really, the only answer was that this whole situation was not what it seemed, and when Riku looked around, as Lea had suggested, he felt his chest tighten and his breath quicken. About ten yards away, a bit closer to the water and in a crook of palm trees, there seemed to be a small gathering of unexpected things: there was a folding table with several plates of food that looked suspiciously as though they might have been swiped from the same venue they'd just left; there was a large tipi of wood surrounded by stones that was obviously intended to be the site of a bonfire, and around it were several folding mesh chairs; there was a hammock slung between two of the trees, and there were three small coolers placed in strategic locations throughout the little site.

"So there's... no..."

"No kids on a raft, Riku," Selphie chuckled as she came up behind them, grinning her slightly crooked grin. "That was just a ploy to get you out of your mom's stuffy excuse for a party."

"Yeah!" came a new voice, and Riku turned to see Tidus approaching from the boardwalk, another cooler in his hands. "We knew you'd never leave your mom's place without a good excuse. Especially not if it was just for fun."

"Right? He's like allergic to fun, ya?" Wakka piped up, emerging from behind the nearest palm tree, his favorite game ball spinning on the tip of one finger. "So Selphie cooked up the idea to make it sound like an emergency, 'cuz we knew that'd light the fire under your ass!" He laughed raucously, and Riku's face was beginning to heat up. He was a little embarrassed that he was apparently this transparent, but mostly he was just flustered that they'd gone to all this trouble for his sake.

"Wait, you guys all just put this together... for me?" he asked, shaking his head. Kairi and Sora had set the precedent for this sort of thing a long time ago--they always managed to find a way to do something to spoil him on his birthday, even if he always told them it was completely unnecessary. But with Sora away on his special training mission, Riku had figured he'd seen the last of such things.

"Hey, brudda, if you're gonna get mad about it, it was all Kairi's idea," Wakka said, dropping the ball and putting his hands up like he surrendered.

"Well, not _totally_ my idea," Kairi admitted, clasping her hands together behind her back and sidestepping a bit. "Lea was the one who thought to have the party on the beach."

"Well, I couldn't exactly set anything on fire in your house," Lea said, folding his arms and rolling his eyes as he toed his sneakers off and kicked them to one side. "I mean, that was one of the ground rules you set from day one, you big wet blanket."

"I was trying to avoid _needing_ a wet blanket," Riku shot back with a snort of laughter. "You literally asked if you could roast marshmallows over the wastepaper basket!"

"I was _obviously_ joking," Lea insisted. "Clearly I would only have done that if the basket was in the bathtub, what do you take me for?"

"So you two roped these three into your scheme, huh?" Riku asked, smiling at the others. He'd never been as close to Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus as Sora and Kairi were--he figured they'd always been a little intimidated by him--so seeing them pitch in for this was a bit of a surprise.

"Well, _someone_ had to bring the good stuff," Tidus snickered, patting the cooler he'd taken a seat on, and Riku groaned.

"Did you seriously raid your dad's liquor cabinet again?" he asked, and Tidus just grinned, rubbing at his nose with his index finger. Riku shook his head. "Don't look so proud of yourself. Stealing from your parents is a sin, not a virtue."

"Ah, don't be such a party pooper," Tidus said, waving a hand dismissively, and Riku just gave a helpless chuckle.

"You never learn."

"Why would I wanna do _that_?"

"Oh, and we did have help from one other person," Kairi said then, still sidestepping, moving toward the little party nook, and Riku narrowed his eyes. Who else _was_ there? Everyone he really knew was already here, except--

"No." There was no way he would ever be so irresponsible! --Wait, who was he even talking about? Of _course_ he would be so irresponsible.

Riku heaved a great sigh as Sora stepped out from behind the trees, his blue eyes bright in the fading sunlight and a big grin on his face as he threaded his fingers together behind his head.

"Heya, Riku," he said. "You didn't really think I'd miss your big important grownup birthday, didja?"

Riku gave him a tolerant look. "I had hoped you might find the self-discipline to be responsible and stick to your training," he said, and Sora blew a raspberry.

"Jeez, it's like you don't know me at all," he snorted, and then made a beckoning gesture with both hands. "Get over here, you moron."

"Who're you calling a moron, moron?" Riku demanded, trying not to laugh as he made a big show of looking very put out by the hug Sora proceeded to smother him in.

"Well, what are we waiting for, then?" Kairi asked, moving to the side of the table and pressing a button on the boombox sitting next to it. An obnoxiously cheerful popular song began to play, and Selphie immediately insisted that this was 'her jam' and grabbed Kairi by the wrists to dance with her.

Sora released Riku from the hug, and scratched his cheek a little sheepishly. "I guess we should'a worn costumes or something, right?" he asked with a shrug. "Since it's Halloween, and all."

"We didn't wear costumes, either," Lea said, and then plucked at his sleeves. "Well, not really."

"But, Lea, you're a zombie, right?" Sora asked with a laugh, and Lea rolled his eyes.

"Yes, yes, I was made aware that I wrapped the thingy wrong," he said, and then wagged a finger at him. "You know, there was that green plastic tablecloth in the attic, we could have used that."

"To be what, a plant?" Sora laughed.

"Well, a three-leaf clover, maybe," Lea said very thoughtfully. "You and me and Kairi, we could have just like cut holes for our heads."

"Lea, Halloween costumes are supposed to be _scary_ ," Riku said dryly. "There's nothing scary about clovers."

"Sure there is!" Lea said. "If it's a three-leaf clover, then nobody gets any good luck, right?" He then proceeded to make a spooky moaning noise, and Riku just shook his head. Lea shoved his shoulder gently. "Well, _you_ could have made it a _four_ -leaf clover, and then we all could have had good luck, but clearly you're just a party pooper like Tidus said."

"I wonder if that saying came from somebody who _actually_ pooped at a party," Sora mused, casting his eyes toward the sky.

Riku wondered sometimes if his life was actually real or if this was all some absurd scripted candid television show designed to make him slowly go insane.

"Okay, if we have to be a clover, can I at least wear some vampire teeth?" he asked, deciding that if you couldn't beat them, perhaps it was better to just join them after all.

"Riku, don't be ridiculous," Lea said, shaking his head and waving one hand. "Vampirism has _never_ been documented in clovers."

"Well, _technically_ plants suck energy from the sun," Riku countered, "so it isn't really that much of a stretch."

"But vampires _die_ in the sun," Sora pointed out, and Lea nodded.

"Yeah, I'm with Sora," he said: "I'm pretty sure photosynthesis is the direct opposite of vampirism." He made a fist and bonked it gently against Riku's crown. "Bam, denied. Nice try, though."

"Hey, are you three gonna gab all night, or are we going to have a party?" Selphie asked, barging into the little circle and snatching Sora and Lea by the arms. "Come on, Riku, it's your birthday, so let's have some fun!"

Riku watched a moment as Selphie dragged Lea and Sora toward the bonfire pit, and he had to smile. He had really been expecting today to be a chore, a total drag, but somehow things had turned around. He knew he was lucky, to have friends like Kairi and Lea and Sora, but he hadn't ever thought Selphie and the others would go to the trouble of trying to make his day special. His smile became kind of faraway and wistful as Selphie struggled a moment to try and light the fire, and the instant she turned away to look for another book of matches, Lea just snapped his fingers and lit the kindling at the base of the tipi.

"Selphie, you got it," he said, tapping her shoulder, and she clapped her hands in delight. For all Lea's showmanship tendencies and penchant for being ostentatious, it made Riku proud to see him exercising that restraint. He hoped that maybe one day they would be able to talk about the truth with the others, with anyone who wanted to know more about what was out there, but for now things like magic and Darkness and people from faroff stars were still too implausible a subject for the denizens of this little world. Maybe he could start here, with these three, one day, and tell them about the adventures he'd had and the lessons he'd learned. At least he was fairly confident _they_ would believe him.

"Are you all right?" Kairi's voice broke into Riku's musing and he startled a little, then turned to look at her. Her indigo eyes were bright with worry and her hair was the color of mahogany in the fading light. He shook his head.

"I'm fine," he said, smiling at her and realizing something behind his eyes was stinging a bit. He squeezed them closed a moment, and Kairi took his arm.

"Riku, are you... are you _crying_?" she gasped, and he shook his head adamantly.

" _No,_ sheesh," he said, and then laughed softly, his smile broader now. "I'm just... really glad you guys are here," he said then and, in a moment of boldness, he reached over and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. "I thought today was gonna be mostly awful, but you guys made it actually pretty awesome."

Kairi beamed at him, and for a moment she looked so unabashedly _happy_ that it made something inside of Riku ache fiercely. How could he have been so foolish, back then? How could he have almost thrown everything away to follow the Darkness?

"Yo! Riku!"

He turned when Wakka called his name, only to see him spinning that ball on his finger again. Behind him, Tidus and Selphie were busy tying a rope between two young bowed palms to make a net of sorts, while Sora dragged his heel through the sand to mark the borders of a court. "We gonna play volleyball, you in?"

Riku grinned widely. "You ready to get crushed?" he said, and Wakka laughed loudly. "Dibs on Lea!"

"No fair, how come you get the beanpole?" Tidus complained, and Lea buffed his nails on the front of his basho.

"He recognizes my tactical advantage," he said, and then held a fist out toward Riku, who bumped it with his own knuckles without missing a beat.

"Fine, you can have Lea, but then we get four players," Kairi said with a conspiratorial smile, marching over to stand with Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka, who all made loud 'ohhhhhhh!' noises while looking very self-satisfied.

Riku looked at Sora and Lea and shrugged. "Guess it's us versus them, then," he said, and Sora threw both hands in the air.

"Let's _destroy_ them!" he crowed.

"Just don't let Kairi fool you into thinking you hit her with the ball again," Riku warned, and Sora scowled.

"That was playing _so_ dirty," he said, shaking his head and looking at Lea. "She pretended I hit her, so Wakka could make a goal while I was distracted trying to help her."

"Sora it's not a _goal_ in volleyball," Riku said, a hand over his face.

"Well, you know what I mean!"

"Worry not," Lea said, squaring his shoulders, "for I am impervious to the wiles of women."

"Lea, you are the biggest pushover I know," Riku snorted, shoving him with his elbow, and Lea crumbled dramatically into the sand.

"It's true," he said with exaggerated maudlin, and then laughed when Sora proceeded to shift a clump of sand over to bury his bare feet with it.

Watching as Sora then offered a hand to pull Lea back to his feet, Riku took a few steps back to await the serve of the ball over the makeshift net. Maybe he had chosen the Darkness once before, in a moment of weakness, but he knew that would never happen again. He had been stupid and naïve back then, and far too proud to lean on the people close to him, but he had learned his lesson. Sometimes it took a far greater strength to know when to ask for help and advice from your loved ones, and even more to accept their love for you, and even if Riku wasn't sure he was that strong yet, he was confident that his friends would make sure he never made such a foolish, selfish mistake again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a deleted scene that goes with it! To access it, please check [this link](kawree.dreamwidth.org/447069.html)! As always, comments are ♥♥♥♥!


	37. Unsettled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lea has a bad feeling about this.

"If anybody tries to say this is my fault again, I swear to Light I'll set both your shoes on fire." Lea wagged a finger as he climbed up the spiral staircase toward Yen Sid's study at the top of the tower, and Kairi rolled her eyes where she followed behind him.

"Lea, nobody's trying to pin this on you," she assured him, shaking her head.

"You know what they say about a guilty conscience, though..." Riku snickered.

"That it's never too early to plan on having one?" Lea retorted, swatting at him, and Riku keened in protest, twisting away.

"Seriously, though, what do you think is going on?" Kairi asked as they crested the stairs, and Riku frowned a bit.

"I really dunno," he admitted, shaking his head. "Do... do you think maybe Master Yen Sid isn't satisfied with our progress?"

"I can't see why he wouldn't be," Lea said, quirking his mouth to one side. "I mean, we've been to like... what, five worlds now? And we've connected them all and made some important allies in the process. We even figured out we could turn our Keyblades into surfboards." He shrugged one shoulder. "How could he be upset with that?"

"Maybe it... hasn't been _enough_ ," Riku said, his hand lingering near the door, poised to knock but not doing so. He glanced at Kairi, then at Lea, worry clouding his eyes. "Maybe he's disappointed we haven't been able to accomplish more by now."

Lea impulsively reached out and bonked Riku gently atop the head, and the younger man gave a start, putting both hands over the spot on his crown to protect it from further assault.

"Maybe we should just knock on the door and go inside instead of speculating," Lea said dryly, keenly amused that they'd had a similar conversation when Yen Sid had first called them to his study to discuss missions. Only that time, Riku had been the voice of reason, not the one afraid to open the door.

He understood, he really did. Lea knew very well that Riku respected Yen Sid more than most people, and he knew that disappointing the old coot was about the most heinous thing Riku could fathom. He also knew that despite Yen Sid's stern and stoic presentation, the old wizard was actually pretty reasonable, and if he had any real issue with the way Riku had been leading these missions, he would have said something about it by now.

Riku stood in front of the door another moment, his hand still raised and his knuckles not an inch from knocking, but he seemed frozen in place. Lea glanced at Kairi, who just shook her head and reached forward to knock instead, while Lea pushed the door open.

"Ah, sir?" he called softly, nudging Riku forward into the room. "You wanted to see us?"

Yen Sid stood at the window, his bony hands resting on the sill, his head bare of its usual pointed hat, which was placed neatly on the corner of his desk. It was interesting to Lea how much of a difference the hat seemed to make; without it, Yen Sid looked... well, mostly like any old man. He looked _old_ , a little fragile, and it was jarring somehow, knowing that beneath the hat, without the magic, behind the air of stern majesty was just a _man_ , a human being, like any of them.

(Unless Yen Sid was actually not human, which Lea wasn't quite prepared to rule out. He would have to investigate further.)

Yen Sid turned to look at them, and as Lea closed the door the click sounded very final somehow; as if the situation didn't feel tense enough already. The old wizard narrowed his dark eyes a little, then folded his hands together and gestured toward the desk, a silent instruction for them to approach. Lea could practically feel Riku's anxiety radiating off of him as they did so, and when the three of them stood in front of the desk, somehow perfectly evenly spaced, Lea cast a quick glance at Riku and gave him a faint smile. Whatever Yen Sid wanted, whatever he had to say, they were in this together, after all.

"I wished to speak to you three about your progress," Yen Sid said carefully, and Riku looked like he was trying not to flinch. Lea met Yen Sid's eye and held it a moment, then glanced away. He still couldn't quite manage to really hold eye contact with him--the old man's gaze was a withering one, somehow. "You have done excellently thus far," Yen Sid went on, and Lea blinked, a little startled by the praise.

"Wait, we have?" he blurted before he could think better of it, and then he looked at Riku with the most I-Told-You-So expression he could muster.

"Indeed, you have," said Yen Sid, taking a seat and resting his hands on the desk, his fingers steepled. "I was a bit concerned, when I first tasked you with these missions, that you might have difficulty staying focused. After all, you have not worked together very long, and I am aware that there was a bit of... friction at the beginning of your relationship."

Lea cleared his throat awkwardly. Yeah, that had been him, and he knew it, but he appreciated that Yen Sid at least hadn't come right out and said it.

"However it seems you have overcome your differences and, in fact, have capitalized on them," Yen Sid went on. "You have found where each of your strengths can offset your shortcomings, and in turn have forged a much stronger force together than any of you would be alone." He folded his hands together then, giving a nod. "It is that strength and confidence in one another that will be Xehanort's downfall," he said.

Lea was inclined to agree, but didn't say as much. It was funny the things he could see now, objectively, in retrospect: Xemnas' inability to trust his subordinates stuck out so starkly to him now, and he wondered why he had been so slow to fully acknowledge it in the past. Even Saïx's unwillingness to trust _him_ with any information hadn't seemed so suspicious back then--it had seemed like a good idea at the time, honestly. Why risk someone messing up your plans, right? Now, though, he could see quite clearly that that sort of thing just wasn't normal at all. He was discovering, to his horror, that working with a team, a _real_ team, wasn't at all like what he'd been doing for the Organization. Maybe they'd all been part of the same group, working toward the same goal (false as that had turned out to be), but now that he was part of an _actual_ team, working with people who respected him and cared about him, he could see that nothing about the Organization had been executed in a healthy or effective manner at all. All the lies and gaslighting aside, the Organization had been a gathering of people working alone, even if they had all been doing it in the same general vicinity toward the same general destination. That wasn't what a team was supposed to look like. Corny as it seemed sometimes, Lea much preferred the way things were done on this side of the fence, when he knew his colleagues trusted him and would listen when he spoke up.

"Do you need anything more from us, Master Yen Sid?" Riku asked after the pause went on a moment longer than was comfortable, and Lea snapped out of his reminiscing to see Yen Sid bow his head slightly.

"Only for you to continue your work in the same diligent, careful manner you have carried it out thus far," he said, and Lea squinted a little. Something about the old man's words sounded very deliberate, as though he'd chosen them specifically, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what sounded off about them. "Remember, every world that is connected will be that much more accessible... Forces can reach even distant worlds with a far greater haste once those worlds are linked to our own, and to every other."

"Of course, Master," Riku said, and bowed deeply. "We'll make sure to connect as many worlds as we can, for as long as we have the power to do so, before Xehanort makes his move."

Lea dipped his head in acknowledgment, but said nothing as they turned to leave.

For years, Axel had depended heavily on that little voice in the back of his head, telling him when something wasn't quite right. Okay, so the voice had screwed the pooch on the subject of Saïx, sure, but for the most part, that sixth sense he'd always had for sniffing out trouble had very rarely steered him wrong. When something didn't quite add up, he could feel it right down into the marrow of his bones, like a sick weight that pulled on all his joints and made him ache at all the corners. He hadn't even realized he was standing in the middle of the landing staring at absolutely nothing until he felt Kairi's hand on his elbow and he jumped, startled out of his contemplation.

"Lea, are you okay?" she asked, tilting her head curiously, and he blew a sigh up toward his hairline, raking a hand back through his mane of red spikes.

"Y-yeah," he said, though he subconsciously shook his head. "I just... did that seem kind of weird to you?"

"Weird how?" Riku asked, starting down the stairs. "It had been a while since he'd really checked in with us."

"Not the meeting," Lea said, following Riku down the stairs, "the... way he was talking."

"He always kind of talks like he's still stuck in the last century," Kairi said, frowning a bit, "doesn't he?"

Lea shook his head again. "Not that, either," he said, and made a frustrated noise. "Just... never mind, I'm probably over thinking."

Riku turned to look at him over his shoulder as they reached the bottom of the stairs, something suspicious in his gaze.

"No," he said, and Lea blinked.

"No?" That was an unusual word to hear coming from Riku, honestly; he seemed allergic to confrontation, a lot of the time. Riku averted his eyes quickly, and Lea had to smile a little as the younger man demonstrated that thought precisely.

"I mean 'no, tell me more'," he clarified, and then sought Lea's eye again; the suspicion had turned to curiosity. "You've been doing this sort of thing a lot longer than me and Kairi have," he said, shaking his head. "If something feels wrong, maybe it _is_."

Lea stared at him for a long moment, too surprised for words. It wasn't that he doubted that Riku would listen to him if he actively spoke up, but this was so much more than that. This was someone actually seeking out his thoughts when all he'd done was mention something offhandedly, and that was something Lea hadn't experienced in far too long. Riku's eyes widened, perhaps in exasperation when he took too long to respond, and Lea laughed softly, shaking his head again.

"Seriously, it's probably nothing," he said, and Riku folded his arms impatiently. Lea waved a hand. "I've spent way too long thinking way too hard about every little thing people say," he said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "It was kind of necessary up 'til recently, you know, given the company I kept, but I'm fairly certain Yen Sid isn't one of the bad guys."

Human? Up for discussion. Villain? Unlikely.

Riku looked troubled, like he wasn't sure how to side. Lea was a little touched that he was taking this passing thing so seriously, but he certainly didn't expect him to confront his master and mentor over it.

"Don't worry about it," Lea assured him, clapping him on the shoulder and moving past him toward the exit. "You can take me out of the Organization, but it'll always be a part of me, you know? Unfortunately, that means I'm a little unnecessarily suspicious of the way people word things."

"Yen Sid does have kind of a weird way of speaking," Kairi admitted, following Lea out the main door and glancing back over her shoulder as Riku brought up the rear. "I don't doubt he doesn't tell us everything we need to know--"

"Yeah, we've discovered that several times over by now," Lea snorted.

"I don't think he'd try and hide anything dangerous from us," she said, shaking her head. "Nothing that could, like... _jeopardize_ a mission, or our safety." She looked at Riku again. "Right?"

Riku pressed a knuckle against his chin, his brow furrowed. "I don't think he'd send us into something he didn't think we could handle," he said, "but it's true that he hasn't always been very open with answers." He looked at Lea. "Do you think we should ask him for more details before we leave?"

Lea shook his head. "No, no, it's fine," he said, waving a hand again. "You're right, of course: he'd never send us into like... imminent peril. I think." He scratched his head, suddenly a little concerned they were in for a test or something, but... no, Yen Sid was a tough teacher, but he wasn't sadistic. "Come on," Lea said, turning to head toward where the train tracks would shimmer into sight at the edge of the grass. "The sooner we get going, the sooner we can come back with yet another report that we've done a good job, right?"

"Where are we headed, anyway?" Kairi asked, and Riku shrugged.

"I dunno," he said. "He's only told me the name of the destination like twice. Usually it's just a new symbol on the train's nav console."

"Symbol?" Lea asked, making a face. "You mean there's not even like a route map or anything? It's just a symbol?"

Riku nodded. "This world has a symbol for Master Yen Sid's hat, Twilight Town is a clock face," he said, ticking off his fingers with each one, "Paris is a bell, like from the tower in the cathedral, um..." He thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Well, c'mere, I'll show you," he said, waving a hand and turning to jog to the edge of the grass. The tracks shimmered into sight, and a moment later the locomotive rumbled up to the ledge. When the doors slid open, Riku stepped inside and waited for Lea and Kairi to follow.

Lea had never really put much thought into the mechanics of the train itself. It was one of those situations where if he really thought about it, he got a headache. (How _did_ a train travel through space? How did the tracks appear out of nowhere? How did it go anywhere with no conductor? There didn't even seem to be any coal or steam furnace for the engine--how did it _run at all_?) Riku waved him up to the front of the car, where there was a wooden door with painted carvings on it, deep blues with stars, like the rest of the locomotive's color scheme. He slid the door aside, and Lea peered cautiously over his shoulder.

"You can come inside," Riku said, giving him a helpless smile. "It won't bite."

"I just never bothered to look up here," Lea said, shoving his hands into his pockets as he stepped through. "I figured this was off-limits."

"Lea, we're the only ones using the train," Riku said, shaking his head. "Who else would come up here, if it was off-limits to us?"

"I dunno," he said, shrugging. "Yen Sid? The King?" He shook his head quickly. "Hey, I'm still kind of on the watchlist, okay? I'm not about to go sticking my nose where it's not specifically invited just yet."

Riku snickered. "I guess that's fair," he said, and directed Lea's attention to the broad panel at the front of the train's little engine compartment.

"Lea, did you think it just read our minds or something?" Kairi snickered, hiding amusement behind one hand as she squeezed into the small control room with them. "That first time you and I went to Twilight Town to go shopping, didn't you see me come up here?"

"Well, yeah, but you're a princess," he countered, folding his arms. "I mean, I figure you usually just do whatever you want anyway."

Riku tried valiantly not to snort in laughter at that, but failed, and after taking a moment to regain his composure, he turned and gestured to the long panel that curved around the front of the room. Along the left side was a lit box with a few dials and a sliding handle of some sort, which Lea figured was for manual speed control or something, and then the rest of the panel was a series of buttons with little emblems beside them. Only a handful of the buttons had images next to them, the rest being blank.

"Here, see?" Riku said, gesturing to the buttons with pictures beside them. "The tower, Twilight Town Station, and here's Destiny Islands," he said, pointing to each one. Destiny Island's image was, predictably, a star with leaves on the top, depicting the famous paopu fruit. "This one's for the Land of Dragons," he said, pointing to the image of a circle with a geometric design in it. "It's some... imperial... design thing, I think.  
Here's the bell, for Paris, and this one's for the Highlands, where we met Merida." The emblem was a sort of triangular shape that looked like a tangle of knots, and Lea nodded, recalling having seen several similar images on various tapestries and carvings in the castle.

"That one's Atlantis, then, right?" Lea asked, pointing to a picture that looked like one of the faceted crystals Kida had given them, and Riku nodded.

"It is," he said. "And here's--" Riku paused for half an instant, clearing his throat as he gestured to the image of a diamond shape laid over a square, with another diamond inside.

"I know," Lea said with a smile, "it's Radiant Garden." It was the same symbol that had been set into the iron gates around the castle; he knew it well. "You can say it, you know?" he said then, giving Riku's shoulder a nudge. "Just 'cuz I've got some hangups about going back there just yet doesn't mean we can't ever talk about it."

"Okay," Riku said, looking a little contrite anyway. "Um... anyway, here's today's destination," he said, and gestured to the next button down the list, which had a greyed-out image of what looked like a rectangle surrounded by thorns.

"That's a weird one," Lea said, tilting his head. "Wonder what world that is. It's a little annoying that you have to memorize what all the pictures mean, instead of just labeling them..."

Kairi poked him in the ribs and he made a sort of squeaking noise in protest.

"I thought you liked memorizing stuff," she teased, and he harrumphed.

"I memorize _important_ stuff," he said stiffly. "This could just as easily be labeled with words so I don't have to."

"I think it's just to save space," Riku said. "You can fit a whole bunch of buttons and little square pictures, but if you have to write the world names out, it takes up more room, right?"

"I guess," Lea said, pursing his lips.

"Why is it greyed out, though?" Kairi asked, her finger hovering over the button of their next destination.

"'Cuz the world isn't connected yet," Riku said. "Master Yen Sid told me that until the world is connected properly, the train can't fully dock, or something. It still disappears so civilians can't see it, but it's only _invisible_. You could still touch it or run into it."

"So people could run into an invisible train on an unconnected world?" Lea snorted. "I'd pay munny to see that."

"I really dunno how it works, exactly," Riku said, "but until the world is officially connected, the image stays greyed out." He gestured down the panel to the hundreds of other buttons. "All of those worlds are unconnected, still, and since only a Master can program coordinates, they're all just blank for now. Master Yen Sid has to input the world coordinates before each mission, until we connect it."

"But, Riku, you're a Master now, too," Kairi said. "Couldn't you program it yourself?"

"I guess so," he said, rubbing his neck, "but I dunno the coordinates. Master Yen Sid says they're all in a big book, but he keeps it in his study so they don't fall into the wrong hands." He frowned at Kairi, then at Lea. "Remember, Xehanort is technically a Keyblade Master, too, so... if he got a hold of this train, he'd have free access to program whatever coordinates he wanted to, even if the world wasn't formally connected yet. He could go to worlds we've never even heard of, if he had the coordinates, so..." He brushed his fingers over the console. "I think it's best that information stays with Yen Sid for now."

He hefted a sigh, then nodded toward the doorway. 

"We should get going, though," he said, reaching out and pressing the button with the new destination emblem beside it. "Who knows what time it might be on this new world, right?"

The train hummed to life, and as Lea glanced out the front windows, he saw the rainbow colors of the mystical tracks extend out into the distance, off the edges of the world, and into the spaces between this one and the next. He wondered absently what world Isa was on right now, what world Xehanort was using for his base. Would they encounter them at some point in the future, before the inevitable showdown for the safety and light of all worlds? He couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, if he could get Isa alone somewhere, he could talk some sense into him. If he could just break him away from Xehanort's control, even for an instant, there might have been a way to save him...

He guessed that was something to worry about if the opportunity presented itself, though; somehow, he had a feeling it wasn't a likely scenario.

Riku slid the control room door closed as they moved to the benches along either side of the train car, and Lea let his eyes wander to the blue-green auroras that swam past the windows outside. He still couldn't shake the unsettled feeling that something about this next world was going to be different. Something about Yen Sid's demeanor, his vague information, his ever so carefully selected words, they told Lea that he needed to keep his guard up this time. Maybe he was overreacting, but he'd always believed it was better to be a little overcautious rather than wind up in over your head. Glancing at Riku and Kairi, he smiled as she fussed with the collar of his vest for a moment, straightening it where it had gotten wrinkled in the back.

He _hoped_ he was just overreacting. Either way, whatever this new world had in store for them, whatever _any_ world might have had in store, he was confident they could handle it together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> maaaaaaaaaan apparently it's now canon that Sora's birthday is March 28th, according to Osaka Preview Night. that totally throws off my birthday headcanons. dammit Nomura you need to tell people this shit BEFORE fifteen years down the road. whatever this is already kind of AU because of 2.8 anyway, so TAKE THAT NOMURA I'M KEEPING MY HEADCANON BECAUSE YOU ARE TOO SLOW besides Sora is so not an Aries sheesh.
> 
> okay seriously tho if the screen debut counts for the birthday then everyone introduced in the game's birthday is March 28th, which is absurd. Sora, Kairi, Riku, Ansem SoD/Xehanort... that would also mean half the Org was born November 11th and the other half was born on December 22nd and TVA were all born January 9th. i reject this Word of God and i'm sticking with my own headcanon birthdays, sorry Nomura.


	38. Faerweather Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which discretion is the better part of valor.

  
The instant the train emerged into the new world, Riku was overcome with an intense feeling of... something he couldn't quite put his finger on. There was a heaviness to the air, like humidity without the stickiness--a sensation of weight on his chest that somehow made it difficult to take a deep breath. He placed a hand against his chest and just focused on breathing for a moment, then coughed and glanced at Lea.

"Do you feel that?" he asked, and Lea just blinked at him.

"Feel what?" he said with a frown.

"Riku, are you okay?" Kairi asked, leaning over and looking him in the eye. "You aren't getting sick again, are you?"

Riku shook his head. "No, it doesn't feel like that at all," he said, trying again to draw a full breath and wincing as his chest constricted. It felt like every nerve in his body was buzzing, electrified, and it was making the hair at the base of his neck stand up. "Something is... wrong, here," he said, getting to his feet and moving toward the door.

"Wrong how?" Kairi asked, and Riku looked over his shoulder at her.

"I dunno," he said, his hand still over his heart, "but we won't get any answers in here."

Lea and Kairi got to their feet and followed him as he stepped out of the train and onto the plush, green grass of what appeared to be a wide meadow. The air was clean and fresh, and off in the distance, Riku could see a great white castle upon a hilltop.

"So it's a kingdom," Lea said, stepping up beside Riku, scratching his head. "I guess we should go talk to the king?"

"I... I guess so," Riku said. Presumably the king of that castle would be in charge of this world, but Yen Sid hadn't given them any direction this time. Previously, they had at least been given a name, or a place to go. Maybe Lea was right: maybe something about this mission _was_ off.

"It looks like kind of a hike," Kairi said, tapping the toes of her shoes against the grass. "Hills and cliffs and everything! Good thing I wore sneakers."

"Why would the train drop us off _here_ , I wonder?" Lea mused then, and Riku looked curiously at him. He lifted his palms. "I mean, I know it can't just pull up in the middle of town, but..." He gestured toward the castle. "That's at least a mile away, on that rugged terrain," he said. "All the previous worlds, we were a _little_ out of the way, but mostly just enough to be securely out of sight of any prying civilian eyes."

"He's right, you know?" Kairi said, tapping her chin, her brow furrowed. "Even though the train can't just deliver us to the doorstep, as it were, it usually drops us off pretty close to where we need to be." She gestured toward the castle. "There's got to be a parking spot closer to the castle than this."

Riku's hand was still pressed over his heart, that heaviness still squeezing his chest and making his breath too short. What _was_ this place? He lifted his eyes again and frowned at the castle, then looked at Lea, his expression a bit strained.

"But... if we're not supposed to go to the castle, then..."

Then who was in charge of this world? And where were they supposed to meet them?

Riku squeezed his eyes closed as the crushing sensation around his heart grew stronger, and he felt Lea close a hand around his shoulder as if to steady him.

"Riku, are you sure you're okay?" he asked, but his voice sounded foggy and far-off somehow. "Maybe we should go back and try again some other day."

"No," Riku said sharply, shaking his head. This feeling, it was so _familiar_. His heart was pounding, his breath rasping against his throat, and he felt as though his skin was crawling, his nerves were so alight. When had he felt like this? Why did it make his pulse quicken with fear?

The guttural cry of a raven broke through Riku's panic like a hammer against glass, and suddenly he knew exactly what this feeling was, and who was behind it.

He straightened abruptly, taking a stumbling step backward, and as he watched the raven circle overhead, he focused his breathing and narrowed his eyes.

In that moment, Yen Sid's lack of instruction made all too much sense.

"I... I know who lives in this world," he said, and as the crushing feeling in his chest grew almost unbearable, Riku grunted in pain, then took a sudden, sharp breath as the feeling intensified, leaving him almost blinded. He knew now why this feeling was familiar. This was a Darkness he knew all too well, a thick and cloying wickedness with a distinct aura all its own. He didn't know how he hadn't recognized it the second they had arrived.

"Riku?" Kairi's voice was thin, and as the raven twisted in a sharp circle in the air, Riku grit his teeth, watching a pool of black smoke curl up out of the ground.

"Both of you, be on your guard," he said stiffly, fisting his hands at his sides as he fought the crushing sensation down, "but don't draw your weapons."

If there was going to be a fight, he wasn't going to be the one to start it. Not here, not on her home turf. Why Yen Sid had sent them here, to this world, of all places, was beyond him, but whatever the old man's reasons, Riku wasn't going to let the ghosts of his past get in the way of this mission. He had already once overcome this feeling of insurmountable weight, of inescapable defeat and powerlessness. He could do it again.

"My, my, aren't _you_ a sight for sore eyes?" a voice echoed from the smoke gathering above the grass, and if Lea and Kairi hadn't had a guess as to what was coming next before, they certainly had one now. The smoke took shape in a flash of green flame, and Lea's hand was on Riku's shoulder again as the figure of a tall, thin woman emerged from the obscurity, a staff in her long, delicate hand and a pair of twisted horns atop her head. She found him with her piercing, chartreuse gaze and lifted her pointed chin, her skin too green to be white but too pale to be green, and her blood red lips parted in what would never quite be a smile. "Riku," she said, her voice clear as glass and dark as night, and Riku clenched his jaw tightly.

"Maleficent," he snarled, lowering his head in a rare show of aggression. Lea's hand squeezed his shoulder, and the older man stepped up next to him, deliberately holding his arm out as if to make a point of placing it between Riku and the witch. Riku honestly didn't know if Axel had ever crossed paths with Maleficent, but Lea obviously knew exactly who she was, and apparently knew enough of the history she had with Riku. This didn't surprise him, given how closely she and Xehanort had worked together, but it was still somehow bolstering that Lea had been so quick to come to his defense.

"I must say, I'm surprised to see you here," Maleficent said, one thin eyebrow arched sharply and her words a little too articulate to sound entirely natural. She daintily closed her fingers around the shaft of the staff and lifted her other hand as the raven cawed roughly, and Riku's eyes never moved from the witch's face as the bird fluttered downward to close its talons around her fingers. "I'm so pleased you brought friends," she said, glancing at them out of the corner of her eye and then turning her attention back to the raven. It hopped down from her fingers onto the orb at the top of the staff, and she fondly stroked its ebony feathers. "The little princess is all grown up, now, and isn't she just _lovely_?"

Kairi cringed, but only just, holding her ground valiantly as the witch looked her over as though she were a morsel to be savored. Kairi had only encountered Maleficent briefly, but Riku had reluctantly told her of Maleficent's manipulation, and the lies he had been fed. He was never going to allow himself to be led by the nose that way again, and to see Kairi refuse to quail this way despite knowing how powerful Maleficent was... he was proud of her.

The witch made a tutting sound and shook her head a little, putting on quite the show of looking hurt by their defensive reaction.

"Now, is that any way to greet an old friend?" she asked, looking at Riku with feigned injury in her eyes.

"We're not friends," Riku growled, lifting a hand and touching Lea's wrist to let him know he didn't need protecting. He had defeated Ansem's Darkness within his own heart; he could handle Maleficent.

"I see," Maleficent said then in a bit of a huff, and anyone who didn't know what sort of monster Maleficent truly was might have thought Riku was being unfairly cruel; it seemed she still had the same flair for the dramatic and false, and he wasn't particularly surprised. She turned her unearthly yellow eyes toward Lea then, and Lea went rigid again, like her gaze was ice dropped down his spine. "You," she said slowly, squinting a bit, "you aren't like these two."

"No, clearly I'm much taller," Lea shot back sharply, and under any other circumstances Riku might have laughed.

Maleficent smiled faintly, amused by the retort, but shook her head. "Your _heart_ is not like theirs," she clarified. "It's... cracked."

"'Scuse me?" Lea seemed much less alarmed by her presence now and more simply annoyed by her commentary, which Riku supposed was the better option, all things considered. He had never known Lea to be _fearful_ of much of anything, and watching Maleficent's attempts to get under his skin roll right off his back was encouraging.

She inhaled to speak again, then paused when the raven made a sharp coughing sort of sound, crowing fiercely to get her attention.

"Calm down, my pet," the witch said soothingly, stroking the bird's head as it chattered rapidly at her. "There's nothing to... oh."

Her eyes fell on Lea then, and Riku felt him stiffen beside him. The raven made a gravelly sound and snapped its beak, and Maleficent smiled that false smile again, something sinister in her eyes though her expression remained mild.

"I didn't realize," she said. "You are one of Xehanort's foot soldiers. That explains the fractures around your heart."

Lea made a sibilant noise and bared his teeth. "Not anymore, I'm not," he snapped. "Your information's a little out of date."

"You'll forgive me for not keeping strict tabs on my rival's toadies," she replied coolly, examining her fingernails, and Lea made a low growling sound in the back of his throat. "However, it seems thanks are in order," Maleficent continued, meeting Lea's eye again. "Diablo tells me you're the one who set him free," she said, and Riku gave a start in tandem with Lea.

"What?" he blurted, looking up at Lea in something like horror.

" _What_?" Lea blurted half an instant later, and Riku was relieved that he seemed to have as little idea what Maleficent spoke of as he did.

Maleficent's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and she turned her gaze back to the bird, running her fingers down its broad back.

"Two years past, perhaps," she said then, "after one of Sora's... numerous temporary victories, my pet was imprisoned." She glanced at Riku again, the sinister look back in her eyes. "He was caged, in the ruined castle I had once called my base of operations," she said, and her gaze moved liquidly back to Lea, her thin lips parting in a predatory smile. "You were there," she said, "with a boy... a boy with yellow hair, who bade you set Diablo free." She bowed her head almost reverently. "You have my gratitude," she said. "It is because of you that I was able to resume my endeavors after that particularly nasty defeat."

Riku stared at Lea, and the look of slow, sick, horrified understanding that crossed the redhead's face told Riku that what the witch said was true. Lea's expression screwed up with indignation then.

"Now, just a damn minu--the _bird_ told you that?" he demanded, and he sounded so utterly incredulous that Riku almost wanted to snort with laughter.

Maleficent seemed unfazed, though the smile had faded from her face. "Those who cannot speak with words often have far more to say than you humans are willing to hear," she said, lifting her chin again. "I know not what you three are doing here in my dominion, and normally I would take advantage of your obvious lack of preparation, but in appreciation for your compassion,"--she held Lea's gaze a moment, eyes narrow--"you shall come to no harm here this day." She fixed her eyes on Riku again. "Don't look so shocked, child," she scolded. "We do not have to be allies for me to reward good behavior, and you of all people should know that I never break my word."

"I-I'm not a _child_ ," Riku said sharply, his shoulders tense. "I'm not that little boy you toyed with all those years ago, not anymore." Maleficent's eyebrows inched upward, but she made no retort, and Riku huffed. "We have no business with _you_ , we're here to see the ruler of this world."

There was a beat of silence, and then Maleficent's face seemed to warp unnaturally, her lips splitting into a vicious grin that looked too wide for her angled face, and she tilted her head back and laughed loudly.

"You seem to be misinformed," she cackled, shaking her head. "Did you believe that fool _Stefan_ ruled over these lands?"

"Stefan?" Kairi echoed, and glanced toward the castle. "Is he the king?"

Maleficent's lip curled distastefully. "The little king in his glittering castle," she said, "but he has no real power here. You humans always seem to think you are the strongest creatures in any land you lay claim to, but you could not be more wrong." She spread one arm to her side, the flowing, petaled sleeve trailing like ink in water as she moved. "Can you not feel the magic this world is steeped in? Every beast, every tree, every rock and river, this land belongs to the fair folk, and as such, to _me_."

"Well, that explains Yen Sid's tight-lippedness," Lea grumbled, folding his arms.

Maleficent's lips curled ever so slightly in distaste. "Yen Sid? That old fool," she said disdainfully. She regarded Riku then. "He sends you on this errand to my domain, and does not even deign to prepare you for what you would encounter," she said, shaking her head almost in disappointment, "and yet _I_ am the one you cannot find it in your heart to trust?" She gave a pointed sniff, looking at her nails again. "What odd priorities you humans have." She lifted her eyes without moving her head then. "So what _are_ you doing here?" she asked, shifting her posture and stroking Diablo again. "Surely your mission must be an important one, if you followed orders so blindly as to come here with no information at all."

Riku hesitated, glancing at Lea and then Kairi, and then back to Maleficent. He squared his shoulders and set his jaw, then shook his head.

"Never mind," he said firmly. "We'll get what we need somewhere else."

Maleficent narrowed her ethereal yellow eyes once more, then shrugged her bony shoulders.

"Uncouth as always, I see. Suit yourselves," she said, shaking her head. "I believe you are making a terrible mistake, however."

"How's that?" Riku asked, glowering at her. He really wasn't interested in hearing her _advice_ , but he had to admit to a little curiosity as to what she could possibly think he was wrong about.

"A time will come," she said, her chin inclined a bit haughtily, "when you believe you have won, and everything appears to be going your way." Her expression darkened, her eyes skirting away. "And when you feel you are safe at last, that is when you will truly know betrayal," she said, her eyes finding Riku's again. "All I did was try and prepare you for what is inevitable in every life," she said, "and yet you spurn me, as though I were the traitor. Think what you must of me, but I never lied to you; I merely brought to light that which you already suspected. I kept my word to you each and every time, and this is the thanks I receive." A bitter laugh dusted over her lips, and she shook her head. "You'll get no more chances from me, boy," she said. "The next time we meet, you and I shall be enemies."

Riku looked at her incredulously. "What exactly were we up 'til now?" he asked, his voice a little shrill with disbelief, and Maleficent merely laughed. The witch turned away from them as the raven took to the air once more, and she glanced over her shoulder.

"Enjoy your stay," she said, her voice deceptively gentle. "Nothing here will hurt you on this day, you have my word." The gentleness melted away to something much more sinister then. "However, once the sun goes down... well, who _knows_ what you might find in the dark?"

And then she was gone in a flash of that green fire and the echo of her unearthly laugh, leaving the three of them standing in the clearing as if transfixed by the curling tendrils of smoke left in her wake. Riku came back to his senses first, shaking his head sharply and taking the first full breath he'd been able to draw since they'd arrived. Blowing it out in a whuff, he glanced at Lea, then at Kairi, then rubbed the crown of his head.

"I think we need to have a little chat with Master Yen Sid," he said dryly, and Kairi frowned at him.

"What do we do?" she asked, shaking her head. "You didn't even ask her if there were any Heartless..."

"It doesn't matter if there are or not," he said, shaking his head and closing his hands into fists. "We are _not_ connecting this world."

"We're not?" Kairi asked. "But..."

Riku gave her a stern look, though it wasn't angry. "We ask about the Heartless because we need to make sure the world is safe, not just for us while we're here, but for every other world that's connected," he said. "Whether or not there's any Heartless here, any world that _Maleficent_ is in charge of isn't safe for _anything_." He lowered his eyes. "Or any _one_." He rubbed his upper arms, suddenly feeling chilly, though the day was pleasantly balmy. "Come on," he said, "let's get out of here, before she decides to smite us where we stand or something."

"She said we were safe," Lea piped up, his eyes still on the spot Maleficent had vanished from, and Riku snorted a laugh.

"And you _believe_ her?" he asked.

Lea turned to look at him. "She's fae, right?" he asked. "A fairy?"

"I thought fairies had wings," Kairi said, looking puzzled.

"She's a _witch_ , obviously," Riku spat, and Lea shook his head.

"She said 'fair folk'," he said.

"So?"

"So," Lea said, turning to face him then, "that means she's bound by her word."

"So that means after she smites us, we can call a lawyer, I guess?" Riku asked flatly, and Lea managed to laugh softly.

"You don't have stories about fae on the islands, I guess," he said. Riku tilted his head a little, and Lea held one finger up in the air, wagging it importantly. "Fairies and witches are confused for one another fairly often," he said, and Riku found himself wondering where in the worlds Lea seemed to get all of his random factoids, "but there are a few very distinct differences."

"Uh huh," Riku said, folding his arms and preparing for another one of Lea's random useless fact of the day sessions.

Lea seemed to realize he was simply being humored, and gave Riku a bit of a dirty look. "Well, fine, clearly you've got more important things to do than listen to a history lesson," he said with a huff. "Anyway, the point is, Maleficent is fae--she plain-out said she ruled the fair folk on this world. That means that when she makes a promise, she's bound by it. She literally _cannot_ break it. That's why fairies are always very specific. She warned us not to hang around after dark, which means her 'you're safe here for the day' contract ends at sunset."

Riku looked dubious. "I'm not sure I'm willing to bet my life, or you guys' lives, on Maleficent being obligated to keep her promises," he admitted, and Lea shrugged.

"Fair enough," he said, and Riku was a little impressed at how much faith Lea seemed to have in this theory. He seemed genuinely unperturbed to still be here, as though the word of a fairy--or whatever Maleficent truly was--was actually enough to set his mind sufficiently at ease.

Riku looked at Kairi, who was staring back at the spot where Maleficent had once stood, her hands clasped near her heart, and he reached over to touch her shoulder.

"Kairi?" he said, and she looked at him, her eyes troubled. "What's wrong?"

She frowned. "She's... very lonely," she said, and Riku snorted.

"What?" he asked. "Kairi, she's the most powerful creature, maybe besides Xehanort, I've ever met. You know what she's capable of."

"That doesn't mean she can't be lonely," Kairi said, her brow furrowed.

"If you say so," Riku said, shaking his head. Mostly he just wanted to get the hell off this world. Who knew if Maleficent was still watching them, still listening to what they said? If she ruled over this whole world, she could have had eyes and ears anywhere and everywhere, and the thought of her cold gaze on him still... it was enough to send goosebumps running up and down his arms. "Lea, if you wanna hang around and test Maleficent's ability to keep her word, you go right ahead," he said, and then jerked a thumb over his shoulder, "but _I'm_ going back to the tower. I think Yen Sid owes us an explanation, don't you?"

He started to walk back toward the train, and Kairi jogged to catch up, reaching to take his elbow.

"What if he gets mad that we didn't connect this world?" she asked, shaking her head. "If there's no Heartless here, wouldn't that mean we didn't do our job?"

"Maleficent is way more dangerous than the Heartless she can command," Riku said stiffly. "I dunno if Yen Sid understands that, but I know if we connect this world and give her access to the train lines, we'll be putting every other connected world in a lot of danger. That isn't something I'm willing to do, no matter who tells me it's my job."

Kairi seemed satisfied with this answer and released his arm before turning to look at Lea.

"What did she mean," she asked, "when she said you freed her raven?"

Lea looked genuinely embarrassed then, and maybe a little remorseful as they returned to the train and the door slid open.

"It was a while ago, like she said," he told them, sitting down on one of the bench seats with a sigh. "Me and Roxas had gone back to Radi--er... I guess it was still Hollow Bastion at the time," he said, watching the door slide shut and planting his hands on the seat as the train began to move. "Anyway, we were there, and things were still a pretty big mess. Roxas saw the bird in a cage by the castle, and he said I should set it free." He shrugged one shoulder. "I didn't think about it, really," he said. "I mean, I hadn't ever really _met_ Maleficent, I couldn't tell her bird from any other big black bird in a lineup, so I threw my chakram up toward the cage and it broke the lock, and the bird flew away." He kneaded his forehead with both hands. "Guess that's one more tally under the 'You Done Screwed Up' column for me," he muttered, and Riku shook his head.

"You didn't know," he said. "If you'd set it free because you knew what would happen, then sure, we'd be having some words right now, but..." He smiled faintly. "You set it free because you didn't want to see a bird in a cage," he said, "and whatever else that might have set into motion, it apparently at least bought our safety today."

Kairi laughed quietly. "I guess the lesson is be nice to animals, because you never know which one might belong to a fairy-witch."

The three of them laughed, though the sound was a little forced. Though Lea and Kairi didn't have the same dark history with Maleficent that he had, Riku appreciated their solidarity; Maleficent was powerful and dangerous, and it was impossible to know for sure just how close that call might have been. 'The next time we meet, you and I shall be enemies', she had said, and whatever their relationship had been up to this point, Riku held no illusions that she would give him any benefit of doubt should they meet again. He could at least take a little comfort in the fact that however much Maleficent might have resented him now, her hatred for Xehanort was far stronger, and that _almost_ made him want to feel sorry for him.

Almost.

The train rounded a corner, and off in the distance, the pastel oranges and golds of the Mysterious Tower loomed into view, shimmering out of the blackness of space like a mirage in an endless ebony desert. Riku had a lot of respect for Master Yen Sid, and he had always done his best to meet the old wizard's expectations, but somehow today had been a step over the line. Whatever game Yen Sid thought he was playing, pitting him against Maleficent like that, Riku wasn't going to just sit back and accept it. Master, mentor, teacher or otherwise, Riku had learned the hard way that he didn't have to let people disrespect him just because they were in higher standing than he was. His hands would shake, and his voice would shake more, he was certain, but he was going to get some answers from Yen Sid before the day was out, no matter how much trouble it got him into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maleficent has always been my absolute fave Disney villain, and i _loved_ what the live-action film did for her character. evil just for the sake of evil is never as interesting, to me, as evil for a good _reason_ , and revisiting Maleficent's character many years later, her relationship with Riku seems very hollow and sad, somehow. like yeah, she's a manipulative bitch who used him good, but i also don't think she was 100% full of shit when she told him she saw him like a son. she doesn't really have a genuinely maternal bone in her body, it's true, but while i'm sure she knew very well what she was doing when she _used_ Riku, it's also true she never seemed interested in hurting him. maybe minions are the only love and devotion she's ever known, you know? so i had a good bit of fun kind of tangling up the intentions and feelings this chapter unearthed.
> 
> also, the bit about Axel freeing Diablo _is technically_ canon, though it's more an implied canon than anything else. in the bonus booklet [Another Report](http://kingdomhearts.wikia.com/wiki/Kingdom_Hearts_Another_Report), which was a preorder special from KH2FM+, there's a scene much like what Maleficent described, in which Axel and Roxas are hanging around in HB, and Axel frees a crow from a cage at Roxas' behest. it's never stated overtly that the crow was Diablo, but it happens right before KH2, and it _is_ otherwise pretty bewildering the way Maleficent came back out of thin air for the game, yanno? so it's just some little bonus canon i have always been a fan of and like to incorporate into Axel/Lea's overall history.
> 
> fae lore is also a side hobby of mine, and i've always loved the way fairies, gods, and other such ethereal creatures are so often bound by something so simple as a promise, even if they're villains. I Gave My Word is a long-standing favorite trope, so i had fun working a little of that into this as well. just don't eat anything or step into any circles of mushrooms while in Enchanted Dominion, guys. 8') also i'm posting this chapter a smidge early because it's Halloween and i bet that's Maleficent's favorite holiday and also it's Riku's headcanon birthday so. yeah. enjoy, kids! comments make my day!! ♥ ♥ ♥


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